As for the second basis, it is the source of al-Rāzī’s(1) error and that of others like him. He supposed that if(2) this and that both existed, and existence encompassed them both, then there would be a universal existence shared by them in external reality. There must therefore be some distinguishing factor that differentiates one from the other; and since that distinguishing factor is nothing but the essence, there must be a shared existence and a distinguishing essence.

Moreover, these people do indeed(3) contradict themselves: they hold existence to be divided(4) into the necessary and the contingent, or the pre-eternal(5) and the originated, just as all other general universal terms are divided—not in the manner of equivocal expressions, such as the term “Suhayl,” which is applied to [Suhayl](6), the star, and to Suhayl ibn Amr. For in such cases it is not said that this is divided into such-and-such