  Following on this general sensitivity to various layers of textual meaning, Maimonides shares his penchant for allegorical reading together with many Islamic philosophical exegetes, including Al-Farabi, Avicenna, and Averroes, and in this way is part of a larger tradition of textual interpretation (ta‘wīl) in which Scriptures are seen as having “outer” (ẓâhir) as well as “inner” (bāṭin)  senses.[29]