Through demonstration one attains no knowledge whatsoever of particular entities; nothing that actually exists is made known thereby. What it yields are only notional constructs projected in the mind.

Now, even were we to imagine—though the claim is false, as has been shown elsewhere—that the soul’s perfection lies solely in knowledge, this would still not be knowledge that perfects the soul. For the soul would have learned nothing of real existents, nor would it have become an intelligible world corresponding to the world outside; rather, it would be cognizant only of abstract universals that tell us nothing about the concrete world. What benefit could there be in that, let alone any perfection?

Second Aspect
Demonstration does not impart knowledge of the Necessary Existent, of the separate intellects, and the like.

A second observation: The noblest of beings is the Necessary Existent, and His existence is particular, not universal. A universal, by definition, allows the mind to conceive of others sharing in it, whereas the Necessary Existent is such that the very act of conceiving Him rules out any possibility of a partner. Thus, if one grasps only a universal concept that could apply equally to Him and to others, without discerning what excludes such sharing, he has not truly known the Necessary Existent.

The same holds for the intellectual substances they posit—whether the ten intellects, or the larger number proposed by those who multiply them, such as Suhrawardī the Executed, Abū al-Barakāt, and others. All of these are particular substances, not universal notions; hence, if one knows only universals, one knows nothing of them at all.