Zahiri school

Now in this he clearly differs from many of his peers, but the position is not as unheard of as some might think, and there had been other Muslim scholars previously that had the same position, including the fellow Andalusian Ibn Hazm and even the famous al-Tabari.

In fact, Ibn Arabi's connection with Ibn Hazm might be especially important here, since his legal methodology, his positions on Islamic law and fiqh, is in some ways quite similar to Ibn Hazm's school of Zahirism, albeit also different from it in some significant ways.

And many people argue even today that Ibn Arabi was in fact a Zahiri, that he belonged to this madhhab, this school of law, although it is somewhat disputed.

What Zahirism was or is, is essentially a very strict textualism and literalism.

Ibn Arabi read the Quran and Hadith very quote-unquote literally, or in a very restrictive way.

This might be surprising to some who associate mysticism with a more open approach, but it is in fact central to Ibn Arabi's legal methodology.