not possessing them, is more perfect than that which cannot possess them under any circumstances.

Thus, an animal in which privation and possession can alternate—being either able to hear or deaf, sighted or blind, alive or dead—is more perfect than an inanimate object incapable of either. Indeed, an animal characterized by these deficiencies, yet capable of possessing the corresponding perfection, is more perfect than an inanimate object incapable of it.

If, then, you say that the Necessary Existent cannot possess attributes of perfection—even though a being characterized by deficiencies can possess them—you have made Him less perfect than animals and placed Him on the same level as inanimate objects. And anyone who described Him as having these deficiencies, with the possibility of His being endowed