Ah?mad ibn ?Al? al-B?n?, a thirteenth-century Sufi from North Africa, has been widely acknowledged as a popular author of Arabic texts that describe the special properties (khaw?s?s?) of the Names of God, verses of the Quran, and other symbols associated with Islam. Because of these accomplishments, al- B?n?’s Arabic biographers praised him as a great mystic who revealed deep and holy secrets. Al- B?n?’s reputation is such that texts attributed to him continue to be printed and circulated—apparently with the goal of harnessing these symbols for practical ends. At the same time, various Western scholars have observed that much of the material circulated under al- B?n?’s name almost certainly post-dates al- B?n? s death in 622/1225. If we accept that most of this corpus was written after al- B?n? died, the question arises: Is it possible to accurately date any of this material so that it can be understood in terms of Sufi thought and practice at the time of its composition? In this paper, I will demonstrate how it may be possible to date the different recensions of the best-known work attributed to al- B?n?, Shams al-ma??rif wa-lat???if al-?aw?rif (The sun of gnosis and subtleties of wisdom). Since there is no scholarly edition of the text yet, most scholarship dealing with this work has relied on the different popular editions which have been printed since 1905. Three different recensions of this work are known and are available in manuscript. These are the “short,” “medium,” and “long” recensions. My examination of all three recensions suggests each of them represents a distinct, datable in the development of the text. Furthermore, the short recension may well date from al- B?n?’s lifetime and thus may be authentic. Dating each recension as precisely as possible will help scholars analyze the mystic and occult elements contained in these works in terms of contemporaneous religious and historical developments.