From that First Intellect there issues a Second Intellect, which they call the god of the ninth sphere; from it a Third Intellect, the god of the eighth sphere; and so on until the chain ends with the Tenth Intellect, the god of the lunar sphere and of all that lies beneath it. From this Tenth Intellect, they say, flow down all the sciences and moral qualities found below the moon, and from it proceeds—according to them—whatever knowledge is revealed to prophets and to others. Those who wish to reconcile the heavenly scriptures with the words of these philosophers claim that this very Intellect is Gabriel of whom the messengers spoke. They cite the verse “and he is not begrudging of the Unseen,” reading it with the dropped ḍād, and take it to mean that he is ever-bounteous, never miserly. Sometimes they go further and identify Gabriel with the imaginative images that form within the Prophet’s soul, images suited to the knowledge granted him, just as occurs to one who is asleep.

Hence a follower of theirs such as Ibn ʿArabī declared: “The saint—or the Seal of the Saints—is superior to the messengers and the prophets, and sainthood surpasses prophethood.” Their argument is that the person they call the Seal of the Saints draws from the very source from which the angel who conveys revelation to the messenger draws, whereas the messenger, in their view, receives from the imaginative faculty within himself—Gabriel, as they conceive of him—and that faculty in turn takes from the pure intelligibles; the saint, they claim, takes directly from those intelligibles. They therefore assert that the angels of whom the messengers informed us are none other than these ten intellects or the imaginative forms that arise within human souls.

Concerning the souls of the celestial spheres, they hold two opinions: the first is that such souls are merely accidents inhering in the sphere, like the appetitive and irascible powers. This is the view adopted by most of Aristotle’s followers.