Book One, chapter 7

1Chapter 7

2Know, may God honour you, that existing things have ranks. The existence of the Creator, the Exalted, is the most excellent existence, and the noblest and most perfect in rank. Next to Him in the rank of existence is the intellect, and from the intellect comes the existence of the soul, then matter after it; and all of these are not moving and are not described by local motion. Then after that is the sphere of nature, which is the beginning of motion and rest, and from it generation and corruption begin, [reaching] to this world.

3Then after the sphere of nature is the existence of the spheres, down to the sphere of the Moon. Then after the sphere of the Moon there is found a common material which has a sensible rank; and the meaning of that is that things are in it potentially, not actually. Then next to it are the elements that act upon that common material, because the action of the elements is only in a material. Then after the elements the minerals, then plants, then animals then the rational [one] of it. So the existence of this rank is contrary to the existence of the first rank, because the first rank, from the existence of the intellect, is a noble rank; then it descends to the basest rank until it ends at the sphere of the Moon. And what is after the sphere of the Moon begins from the basest [and rises] to the noblest, and that is the rational animal, because in it is wisdom, and in it the will is perfected actually, not potentially. So know your self, O you who study wisdom: you will win the abundant portion and the utmost happiness. And do not be the one meant and intended by the saying of this speaker:

4I have not seen, among the faults of people, any fault / like the deficiency of those who are able to reach completeness.

5And the ranks of existing things have a division which I shall make clear to you, so that you may train your intellect by it and illumine your insight. So come, listen and be guided: the principle first, then the element (ʿunṣur), then the element (istaqiṣṣ), then matter, then form, then nature, then body, then the growing [thing], then animal, then human being, then man, then Zayd the indeterminate, then Zayd the known.

6So the principle is more general than the element (ʿunṣur) and a genus for it, because it applies to substance and accident, while the element (ʿunṣur) applies only to substance. And the element (ʿunṣur) is more general than the element (istaqiṣṣ), because the element (ʿunṣur) is substance without quality, and when it receives quality it is an element (istaqiṣṣ). And the element (istaqiṣṣ) is more general than matter, because it is a single substance that has received a quality.

7And matter is the coming together of the elements (istaqiṣṣāt) for the reception of form. And matter is more general than form, because matter, before it receives formation, is plain; and when it receives formation it is a form, like the matter of copper for the form of the ewer and like the matter of wood for the form of the chair. And when it receives motion and rest and the power mixed with them, it is a nature.

8And when the natures come together and receive colour or growth or division, it is a body. And body is growing and not growing; and the growing is animal and not animal; and animal is human being and not human being; and human being is man and not man; and man is Zayd and not Zayd; and Zayd is indeterminate and not indeterminate; and the not indeterminate is the known.

9And matter, may God illumine your insight, which is the coming together of the elements (istaqiṣṣāt) for the reception of form, is two matters: an individual matter, which receives only one form, composed of the compound elements, earth, water, fire and air, [and which] passes from substance to substance; and a universal matter, receptive of all the forms, composed of the simple elements, heat, coldness, dryness and moistness, and [which] does not pass from substance to substance.

10And the sage Aristotle did well when he defined matter, from the side of the mathematical sciences, as a power receptive of the various forms, and defined it, from the side of the natures, as a body constitutive of the essences of all individual things.

11And our mentioning of these ideas and our setting them forth is a refining of the mind and a sharpening of the thought. And this, and speech resembling it, are the spiritual talismans and the words which Adam received from his Lord; and none understand them but the knowing, and he for whom the success of union through universal contemplation has come about. And upon the attaining of its comprehension was the postulate of this treatise [founded].