and that when someone seeking intercession turns to one of the higher substances he venerates—such as the intellects, souls, stars, the sun, or the moon—he establishes a connection with that venerated being whose intercession he seeks. Whatever emanates from the Lord upon that being then flows upon the petitioner through his intercessor. They liken this to the sun shining upon a mirror: the light falling upon the mirror is reflected onto another place, illuminating it. That place receives the light by facing the mirror, while the mirror receives it by facing the sun.
They also say that the angels are the ten intellects, or the good faculties within the soul, and that the devils are its evil faculties, along with other claims whose falsity is established by rational proofs—indeed, is necessarily known from the Messenger’s religion. If their polytheism and disbelief are greater than those of the Arab polytheists, what perfection can the soul attain through such ignorant notions? This and similar matters require extensive elaboration. The purpose here is to discuss their claims concerning logical demonstration.
Furthermore, if they say that knowledge can be acquired only through demonstration, which they regard as a universal syllogism that must contain a universal affirmative proposition (hence their assertion that no conclusion follows from two negative premises or two particular premises in any type of syllogism, whether classified by form—categorical, conjunctive conditional, or disjunctive conditional—or by content—demonstrative, rhetorical, dialectical, or even poetic),