in the contingent being. This is mistaken: there is nothing existing externally that is itself present in both beings. Rather, the word “existence,” its meaning in the mind, and the written form representing that word encompass both beings and apply to them both; in this they share. The mental meaning of existence encompasses them just as the word “existence” and its written form encompass them. This is what they have in common. As for what actually exists externally, the two resemble one another only in certain respects. But the claim that the very essence and attribute of one contain something of the essence and attribute of the other is known to be false by anyone who conceives it. Anyone who hesitates over this has simply failed to conceive it.

Accordingly, what is said about the term “existence” also applies to the terms “essence,” “entity,” “self,” “quiddity,” and “reality.” Just as reality is divided into necessary reality and contingent reality—and likewise with the terms “quiddity,” “essence,” and the like—so too is existence. When we say that reality or quiddity is divided into necessary and contingent, it does not follow that the necessary being’s quiddity contains anything of the contingent being’s quiddity. Likewise, when we say that existence is divided into necessary and contingent, it does not follow that necessary existence contains anything of another being’s existence. Indeed, He contains neither absolute existence nor absolute quiddity. Rather, His quiddity is real and is His existence.

If the external existence of a particular created being is its very essence, reality, and quiddity as they exist externally—not two distinct external things—then it is all the more fitting that the Creator Most High’s reality should be His actual existence, in which no one shares with Him. This is His very quiddity, which is His reality as it actually is.