One time my teacher played a certain motif, random octaves broken between thumb and pinky and later when he was out of ear shot I started imitating it. There was nothing hard or special about it I thought and soon it became a gesture I incorporated, often successfully in improv circles. One time later my teacher saw/ heard me do it and nodded with approval about my style, which felt odd, I didn’t know if he knew I got this from him. So, when the collection of Sufi stories happened to tell one about a guy, who despite not “getting it” decided to just imitate his teacher, I thought yeah, makes sense.