Bio: A.L. Finch is a Visiting Research Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies. His research focuses on Islamic metaphysics, Sufi thought, and West African intellectual traditions, particularly the Tijānīyya. He holds a PhD from the University of Exeter and has published on comparative Sufi metaphysics and Islamic epistemology. Abstract: This paper examines the onto-epistemic divergence between Shaykh Ibrāhīm Niasse (1900-1975) and Akbarian Sufi metaphysics, particularly through the metaphor of ink. While Ibn ʿArabī's structured dualism relies on khayāl (imagination) as an intermediary between unity and multiplicity, Niasse presents a pre-onto-epistemic model of cognizance that dispenses with mediation. By reinterpreting Aḥmad al-Tijānī's ink analogy, Niasse asserts a form of maʿrifa (knowledge) that is neither relational nor structured through ontological gradation. Drawing on al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, Fī Riyāḍ al-Tafsīr, and Jawāhir al-Maʿānī, this study argues that Tijāni metaphysics is not a modification of Akbarian thought but an autonomous paradigm. Niasse's conceptualization of jūd (divine bestowal) precedes ontological structuring, rendering tajallī (divine disclosure) immediate rather than mediated. This challenges assumptions about the necessity of ontological differentiation in Islamic metaphysics. Employing a comparative textual phenomenological approach, this paper examines how Niasse's framework reconfigures the relationship between wujūd (existence) and maʿrifa, contesting onto-epistemology as a sufficient model. By reassessing the limits of mediation and direct knowledge, it contributes to debates on West African Sufi thought, Islamic metaphysics, and post-Akbarian intellectual trajectories. Given EuARe 2025's theme of Religion and Socio-Cultural Transformation, this paper situates Niasse's thought within broader shifts in Sufi metaphysical discourse, highlighting its relevance to contemporary Islamic intellectual history.