in Him, and other such claims that conflict with the apparent doctrines of the philosophers and the ancients who denied knowledge to Him, exalted is He. Plato, who held that intelligible forms subsist independently, and the Peripatetics, who maintained the identity of the intellective subject and the intelligible object, only embraced those impossibilities to avoid committing themselves to these implications.”

He said:

“Had I not stipulated at the outset of these discussions that I would not set out my own position on matters I find contrary to my beliefs, I would have explained fully how to escape these difficulties and others. But the stipulation must prevail.

“Nevertheless, I cannot permit myself to refrain altogether from indicating something of this here. I have therefore given a brief indication from which the truth will become apparent to anyone enabled to discern it.”

He said:

“I say, then: just as a rational being, in apprehending its own essence, needs no form other than the form of its essence, by which it is what it is, so too, in apprehending what proceeds from its essence by virtue of that essence, it needs no form other than the form of that which proceeds from it, by which the latter is what it is.

“Consider your own case: you understand something through a form that you conceive or call to mind. This form proceeds from you—not from you acting entirely alone, but with the participation