they wage battle, and left just one man, believing that he would suffice to fight the enemy, though he was the weakest and least capable of them all. Yet they also cut off the provision on which he relied, leaving no one to confront the enemy.

They are also like someone who demolished all the bridges across a great river such as the Tigris or the Euphrates, leaving only one that was long, distant, and weak. He then made a breach partway along it, severing the route and leaving no one any way to cross. All the while, he puts people to work on the equipment used to build bridges and gives them the impression that no one can cross except by means of what he constructs.

Or they are like a man whose city had successive enclosing walls, one behind another, each sufficient to protect the city. The person in charge then demolished all those walls, leaving only the weakest, longest, and most difficult to defend. He then breached a section of it through which the enemy could enter, leaving the city with no wall to protect it.

It may therefore be said that the existence of the Maker can be established in many ways, including inferring an originator from the fact that things come into existence. For this, a person’s own coming into existence suffices, as does that of the things he observes, such as plants, animals, and other things. He then knows necessarily that whatever comes into existence must have an originator. And if it is supposed that he established the existence of the Maker through the coming into existence of