innately implanted in us

also as he is the beginning of things and their last end

which might have been open to doubt had they been expressed under the figure of nobler bodies,

all our knowledge originates from sense.

For God provides for everything according to the capacity of its nature

The words are used accordingly by way of likening His actions to ours, in addition to their being used, as we have made clear, to indicate the meaning:

he intention here being to signify that He does not need other than Himself

he existent that is the existent, or the necessarily existent.

it is not taken into consideration that these letters may have a meaning, so that great things may be acquired through them and that for this reason there is needed the moral preparation and the multiple forming of dispositions that were mentioned.

There is no doubt that these words were necessarily indicative of several notions and that these notions came near to a representation of the essence of Him, may He be exalted, in the way we have stated.

t He has many attributes, just as there is a multiplicity of actions from which these names derive. Hence Scripture promises that an apprehension that will put an end to this delusion will come to men.

Yod, He, Vav, and He, no commonly accepted derivation of it is known and none other than He has a part in it.

Thereupon one who is himself mistaken or who misleads others tells him that it is an animal possessing one leg and three wings, inhabiting the depths of the sea, having a transparent body and a broad face like that of man in its form and shape, talking like a man, and sometimes flying in the air, while at other times swimming like a fish.

images lies in the fact that what was sought in them was the notion that was deemed to subsist in them, and not their shape and configuration

hat they would even make the deity to be nothing at all unless they thought that God was a body provided with a face and a hand,

perfect man, on the other hand, devoted to Law and, as I have mentioned, perplexed, will benefit from all its chapters.

he should thank God and be content with what he has understood

warning against the pursuit of bodily pleasures and desires

contains wisdom that is useful for beliefs concerned with the truth as it is

their comparison of the concealment of a subject by its parable's external meaning

natural science borders on divine science, and its study precedes that of divine science in time as has been made clear to whoever has engaged in speculation on these matters.

It is illumined, however, by a polished body or something of that kind, stones or something else that give light in the darkness of the night.

truth flashes out to us so that we think that it is day, and then matter and habit in their various forms conceal it so that we find ourselves again in an obscure night, almost as we were at first.

we shall make a complete exposition of it,

while at the same time perceiving that he had brought loss to himself and harm to his religion.

They never look toward the lowerworld. This is because the body in relation to the soul is base

He makes the comparison with angels because angels are the dwelling-place[maskin]of sinlessness and the celebration of God'spraise."

indeed, people of reasonknow that the place to which thought goes, the body does not go, andthat which insight perceives, the sense of sight does not perceive

pirit, they are called soul

animal (soul)[hayavani]in the heart, the natural[tabi'i]in theliver, and the psychic[nafsani]in the brain.

His existence would be by [that cause]

the necessary is that whose nonexistence is not allowable and is impossible,

If, then, such a sign is used, the soul is awakened [to the fact] that such a meaning is being brought to mind

God is called great because of that characteristic greatness of his which gives of itself to everything great,

since it ensures that each being is preserved and maintained in its proper existence and order, distinct from everything else

He is the cause of their individual activity.

God knows all things, not by understanding things, but by understanding himself.

Because of the fragmentary and varied nature of their many activities they are on a lower level than the unified intelligences.

my teacher and yours and the light of our common instructor. For this is what he said: “The foolishness of God is wiser than men”

have understanding and they have knowledge far beyond perception and reason.

But I hold that there is one God for all these good outpourings and that he is the possessor of the divine names of which I speak and that the first name tells of the universal Providence of the one God, while the other names reveal general or specific ways in which he acts providentially.

the symbolic names that are subordinate to him who himself transcends them all.