Another faction among them said, “The union is like the appearance of a man’s image in a mirror, or like the imprint of a seal upon that which is stamped—just as a signet-ring leaves its form in wax.”

A different group maintained that the Word united with the body of the Messiah in the sense that it indwelt him without contact or commingling, just as we say, “Allah is in heaven, upon the Throne, without touching or blending,” and as we likewise say, “The intellect is a substance residing within the soul without mixing with it or coming into physical contact with it.”

The Melkites said, “Union means that the two became one and that plurality was reduced to unity.”

What Abū al-Ḥasan al-Zāghūnī transmitted from them is essentially the same as what al-Qāḍī Abū Bakr ibn al-Ṭayyib, al-Qāḍī Abū Yaʿlā, and others reported.

Abū Muḥammad Ibn Ḥazm stated: “The Christians are divided into sects. Among them are the followers of Arius—who was a priest in Alexandria—whose doctrine included pure monotheism and the assertion that Jesus is a servant …”