of those who deny, all of them rest on vague, ambiguous expressions and ambiguous meanings.

Thus, whenever clarification is sought and their vague statements are examined in detail, and their ambiguous meanings are clarified and explained, it becomes evident to every intelligent, discerning person that those who deny have grouped together things that differ, separated things that are alike, and equated two things that differ utterly merely because they share certain attributes.

Consequently, they ultimately came to regard existence as one. They held that the existence of the Creator, the Lord of all worlds—whom no existent resembles in any respect, and whose difference from every existent exceeds the difference between any two existents—is identical with the existence of the lowliest and smallest created things, or resembles it, because both fall under what is designated by “existence,” “essence,” or “reality.” Their leading speculative thinkers have thus fallen into profound perplexity concerning this question, which is the first thing anyone engaged in rational inquiry ought to understand.

One says:

“Existence is one, because existing things share what is designated by ‘existence.’”

He fails to distinguish numerical unity from unity of species or of genus in the linguistic sense.

Another says:

“His existence is absolute existence: either on condition of absoluteness, or absolute without condition, or on condition that all positive determinations are negated of Him.”

This cannot be affirmed of Him, nor can it be realized among existing things. Such a thing can occur only in what minds conceive, not in what actually exists.

The most that anyone who regards this as having reality outside the mind can do is identify the Creator’s existence with the existence of created things, or make it a part of those created things. He thereby makes His dependence on created things like their dependence on Him, as is maintained by those who distinguish between existence and subsistence.