and being below are real and intelligible, even if we suppose that these particular bodies above and below do not exist, or that the human being with his six directions does not exist. Indeed, for any two self-subsisting entities, it is intelligible that one should be above the other.

Once this is clear, their following assertion can be answered in several ways:

“When something comes into existence after not existing, its nonexistence precedes its existence. This precedence is something additional to nonexistence itself. Inevitably, every instance of precedence is preceded by another. Thus, there are instances of precedence with neither end nor beginning. Time means nothing other than that to which precedence and succession belong intrinsically. Therefore, time has no beginning. Thus, its coming into existence after not existing entails the beginninglessness of time. Consequently, the world’s coming into existence, understood in this way, entails its own beginninglessness.”

The first response is to say to them: There is no doubt that this nonexistence precedes existence.