For Hegel, it's clearly quid est, not just an est

"In the Christian religion God has revealed Himself, that is, He has given us to understand what He is [(was er ist)]; so that He is no longer a concealed or secret existence [(ein Verschlossenes, Geheimnis)].  And this possibility of knowing Him, thus afforded us, renders such knowledge a duty. . . . That development of the thinking spirit, which has resulted from the revelation of the Divine Being as its original basis, must ultimately advance to the intellectual comprehension [(auch mit dem Gedanken zu erfassen)] of what was presented in the first instance, to feeling and imagination.  The time must eventually come for understanding that rich product of active reason, which the history of the world [(Weltgeschichte), which 'universal history' (Weltgeschichte)] offers to us."

     Hegel, Philosophy of history, Introduction III, trans. J. Sibree (GBWW, vol. 46, p. 159); ed. Karl Hegel, pp. 19-20.
     It should be noted that this entire section is, like the preceding one on the doctrine of providence, anti-classical.  Hegel explicitly rejects the "the doctrine that it is impossible to know God" ("was [Gott] ist"), for readily available to us is the "reason" that "governs and has governed the world", Spirit becoming conscious of itself via world history.
     There is no emphasis in the original.