Chapter

If he says, “You are divorced if you fly, ascend to the sky, or turn a stone into gold,” …

His statement, “If he says, ‘You are divorced if you fly’”: That is, if you fly by yourself, she is not divorced, because this is made contingent upon an impossibility, and that which is contingent upon an impossibility is itself impossible. This is why they said regarding the poet’s words:

When the raven turns gray, I shall return to my family,
and when black tar becomes like fresh milk.

They said: This man will never return to his family, because a raven does not turn gray, and black tar cannot become white. Thus, what is made contingent upon an impossibility is impossible. However, if he intended by “if you fly” that she boards an airplane, then the divorce takes effect. But this did not exist in the time of the author or those before him. Therefore, they said that if he says, “You are divorced if you fly,” this is a contingency based on an impossibility. An impossibility is known not to occur, and when its non-occurrence is known, that which is contingent upon it is nonexistent.

His statement, “or ascend to the sky”: That is, if he says, “You are divorced if you ascend to the sky,” intending the known sky, she is not divorced, because this is impossible, and that which is contingent upon an impossibility is impossible. This case differs from the first: in the first, she would be flying even if only close to the ground, even by a meter; whereas “if you ascend to the sky” means ascending upward.

His statement, “or turn a stone into gold”: That is, by an actual transformation, not an imaginary one. She is not divorced, because it is not possible to turn a stone into gold.