The term “essence” may also mean Allah Himself, glory be to Him. His attributes are included in what His names denote; they are not additional to what His Most Beautiful Names denote.

Nor can the essence of anything other than Him exist devoid of attributes, such that its attributes could be said to be additional to it—much less could He, glory be to Him, exist devoid of all attributes of perfection.

All His inseparable attributes are intrinsic, meaning that they are included in what His names denote. He has no need of anything separate from Him. These attributes are inseparable from His very self: He does not exist without them, nor can He exist apart from them.

When it is said, “He knows through knowledge and is powerful through power,” there is no self-subsisting reality here that could exist without knowledge and power. Rather, it can only be knowing and powerful, even though we may know that it exists before knowing that it is knowing.

The examples he cites of “one” and “beginningless” are disputed. Those who affirm the attributes differ concerning the terms “beginningless” and “everlasting”: Is He beginningless, and everlasting through an attribute of everlastingness, as Ibn Kullāb holds? Or is He beginningless in Himself, but everlasting through an attribute of everlastingness, as al-Ash‘arī and those who agree with him, such as Abū ‘Alī ibn Abī Mūsā, hold? Or is He beginningless in Himself and everlasting in Himself, as al-Qādī Abū Bakr and those who agree with him, such as al-Qādī Abū Ya‘lā, hold?

As for the Ash‘arīs saying of knowledge and similar attributes that these are qualitative attributes and are additional to the essence, the response is that their fundamental purpose is to affirm these attributes and refute those who say that He knows without knowledge and is powerful without power, or that His essence is itself knowledge and power.