Seventh:

The particle fi ("in"), which the grammarians classify as a locative adverb, is used in each context with the sense suited to that context. Thus, when one says, "Flavor, color, and fragrance are in the fruit," or "Knowledge, power, and speech are in the speaker," the meaning is perfectly intelligible. But when one says, "So-and-so is in his house," or "The water is in the vessel," an altogether different sense is intended. The first denotes an attribute inhering in the subject that possesses it; the second denotes a self-subsisting entity—called a body or a substance—occupying its locus. From this usage we get such expressions as "the people’s encampment" (al-maḥalla) and "So-and-so has taken up residence in such-and-such a place."

Likewise, when it is said, "The sun and the moon are in the water," or "in the mirror," or "So-and-so’s face is in the mirror," or "So-and-so’s speech is in this parchment," the expression has a meaning people readily grasp. They understand that the sun, the moon, and the face have appeared in the mirror and are seen there, yet their very substance has not entered it; what has entered—according to those who speak this way—is merely a radiant image formed by reflected rays.

So too with speech written on parchment: people know that it is written there, read there, and viewed there. They will say, "I examined so-and-so’s words, read them, pondered them, understood them, and saw them," just as they say, "I saw his face in the mirror and contemplated it," and the like.

In all of these cases they speak truthfully and know what they are saying. They also know that the actual body of the sun, the moon, or the face never entered the mirror, and that the very meanings and sounds belonging to the speech never indwelt the parchment; rather, the mirror served only as an intermediary