In the centuries since his death, the influence of the Ibn ʿArabī's (d. 638/1240) thought has reverberated throughout the Muslim world. From North Africa to the Subcontinent to Southeast Asia, countless Sufis have adopted and adapted his teachings as they saw fit. This paper will investigate the reception of Ibn ʿArabī's science of letters in the Kubrawī tradition through an examination of the exegesis of the Basmala, or the phrase that begins each chapter of the Quran, "In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate," in a Kubrawī Quran commentary often attributed to Najm al-Dīn Kubrā (d. 618/1221) and/or his pupil Najm al-Dīn Dāya (d. 654/1256) (though its precise authorship remains a point of contention). Based primarily on grammatical and syntactical arguments, the author advances a conception of the letters and words of the Basmala characterized by ontological hierarchy in which some are intrinsically superior to others. I will show that he combines a general Akbarian view of existence with distinctive positions that set him decisively apart from Ibn ʿArabī. For example, while contending that only God truly exists and distinguishing between an ineffable divine essence and mediating divine attributes through which He is known, the Kubrawī commentator denigrates alif as an "arrogant" letter and insists on the supremacy of bāʾ, in contrast to Ibn ʿArabī's positive conception of alif as a symbol of God's essence and the source of all other letters. Other views, such as his understanding of the structure of the name "God" (Allāh), likewise reveal the independence of his thought from his Andalusian predecessor. By focusing on this little-studied Quran commentary, this paper also hopes to draw attention to the significance and value of Kubrawī exegetical contributions.