الظاهر والباطن

ẓāhir / bāṭin

outer and inner sense

One passage where the term is defined rather than merely used. Each names the work, the page and the date, and says whether the wording is his own.

al-Fatāwā wa-l-ajwiba

defines

undated · §1, pp. 241, 243

A verse has a ẓāhir and a bāṭin like other verses — stated as a general principle of reading, then applied to give al-samāʾ both a figurative sense (rain) and a real one.

Excerpt from the answer; the full text is not published here. Translation by Amadu Kunateh. The compiler's footnotes are not included.