in itself, this question would still apply to it and to its motions that came to be after not existing.

Likewise, if they say that it moved in order to care for the things below, it follows that the higher serves the lower, and that this end is higher than the agent, which is nobler than it. This is contradictory.

If we suppose that someone says—or that it occurs to him—that the celestial sphere is not eternal and necessary in itself, nor the effect of an eternal cause, but rather came into being by itself after not existing (we know of no one who holds this view, and writers on doctrines have stated that they knew of no one who held it; nevertheless, it is something that may occur to the mind and that Satan may whisper), then the reply is:

This existence that we witness either exists of itself or it does not. If it exists of itself, then either it is eternal