mixed and fused, just as water mixes with wine and wine with milk. Some of them said: Union is that the Word and the humanity came together, becoming both the structure and the vessel. Another party maintained (1) that the union resembles the appearance of a man’s image in a mirror, or a stamp (2) impressed upon something—like a signet-ring in wax (3). Others said: The Word united with the body of the Messiah in the sense that it indwelt him without contact or commingling, just as one says that Allah is in the heaven and upon the Throne without contact or commingling. The Melkites declared: Union means that the two became one, and that multiplicity was reduced to singularity (4).

Some people therefore alleged that those who said, “He is the Messiah, son of Mary” —[namely] (5) the ones who said, “The two united (6) until they became a single entity”—and those who affirmed one essence with two natures, saying, “He is His Son in the way a ray issues from the sun,” and those who professed two essences, two natures, and two hypostases together with the Lord, are the very ones who said, “He is the third of three.” Yet what these claim is of no value, for Allah has informed us that the Christians say, “He is the third of three,” [and that they say, “He is Allah”] (7), and that they say, “He is the son of Allah.” He said to them: “Do not say (8) ‘Three,’” while also telling us that the Christians split into factions and that He cast among them enmity and hatred in His words: {And from those who said, ‘We are Christians,’ We took their covenant, but they forgot a portion of what they had been reminded of; so We stirred up between them enmity and hatred…}.