We say:

As for the Muslims—meaning the speculative theologians who, in his view, defend the Muslims—they recognized only two categories of existent things: the originated and the eternal. Since they held that nothing is eternal except Allah and His attributes, and that everything besides Him is brought into being by Him through His will, they arrived at a self-evident premise concerning His knowledge: whatever is willed must necessarily be known to the one who wills it. On this basis, they concluded that everything is known to Him, because everything is willed by Him and comes into being through His will. Nothing exists but that it comes into being through His will. Only His own essence remained to be considered.

Once it is established that He wills and knows what He wills, He is necessarily living. Every living being that knows something other than itself must, all the more, know itself. Thus, in their view, everything is known to Allah. They reached this conclusion by this method, after it had become clear to them that He wills to bring the world into being.

But as for you, if you claim that the world is eternal and did not come into being through His will, how have you determined that He knows anything other than His own essence? Proof of this is therefore indispensable.”

He said:

“The substance of what Ibn Sīnā presents in the course of his discussion to establish this comes down to two lines of argument.”