He said: On this basis, their objections are plainly dispelled: a report can remain one despite differences in what is reported, and a command can remain one despite differences in what is commanded. Likewise, command and report can differ while the attribute of speech remains one.

He said: If it is objected: If you maintain that speech is a single proposition and that the expressions conveying it differ because of the external things to which it relates, why do you not allow will, power, knowledge, and the remaining attributes to amount to a single reality, with the different expressions conveying it arising from the things to which it relates rather than from any difference in that reality itself? It would thus be called will when related to specification, power when related to bringing into existence, and similarly for all the other attributes.

If that is possible, why should all of this not be reducible to the Essence itself, without any need for attributes?

He also said: Our companions replied that the difference between power and will cannot arise from their relations and the things to which they relate, since