After he had proved the possibility of such marvels on the principles of his fellow philosophers, he went on to say:

“Know that affirming these phenomena and testifying to them is not based merely on conjectures about their possibility arrived at through intellectual considerations alone—although even that, were it the case, would be a sound basis. Rather, they are matters confirmed by experience. Once they appeared, we searched for their causes. It is the common habit of those who seek insight that these states present themselves to them personally, or they observe them time after time in others. In this way the repeated experience serves to establish a wondrous fact, becoming both a proof and a spur to probe its cause. When the cause then becomes clear, the benefit is secured, the soul finds repose in the existence of those causes, and the imagination submits and no longer challenges the intellect regarding what it supposed it had done or seen. This is among the greatest benefits and most important objectives.

Were I to recount the particulars of this field—what we have witnessed ourselves and what has been reported to us by trustworthy informants—the discussion would become overly lengthy; and whoever does not accept the matter in general will find it even easier to reject its details.”

Such are his words. It is evident that, among the causes he cites for these marvels, he includes reliable reports concerning the unseen. He did not mention them merely as a possible conjecture whose feasibility was demonstrated by rational proofs; rather, he cited them because these wonders had been verified through direct observation.