—this power is innate to the angel and sets him above all those who possess the ordinary forces we observe in living creatures.

We have already shown that the proponents of this view repeat what Ibn Sīnā and others like him have said. Ibn Sīnā closes his Remarks (al-Ishārāt) with the statement: “Unusual phenomena that emerge within the realm of nature arise from three principles: first, a psychic disposition; second, properties inherent in the elemental bodies—such as the magnet’s attraction of iron by a force peculiar to it; and third, a celestial power that interacts either with the temperaments of specific earthly bodies endowed with particular spatial configurations, or with the powers of earthly souls marked by actual or receptive astral states, thereby producing remarkable effects.”

He adds: “Magic belongs to the first category; prophetic miracles, saintly karāmāt, and nīrangiyyāt (illusionary feats) belong to the second; while talismans fall under the third.”

Thus he claimed that the causes of events that break ordinary patterns in this world are limited to these three: psychic powers, elemental bodily properties, and celestial powers acting in concert with bodily or psychic forces.