the finger; that it occurs by nature, as in the priority of one over two; [occurs] by status (1), as in the priority of the learned over the ignorant; [occurs] by place (2), as in the priority of the first row over the second and of the front of the mosque over its rear; and occurs by time—is a redundant statement.
For the commonly understood priority and posteriority are temporal priority and posteriority. [For “before”] (3), “after,” “together with,” and similar expressions have meanings inseparable from temporal priority and posteriority. As for priority by causation (4), or by essence while being simultaneous in time, this is wholly inconceivable and has no corresponding instance in existence. It is merely an imagined notion with no reality.
As for the priority of one over two, if what is meant is the absolute one, (5 it has no existence outside the mind, but only in the mind, and the mind conceives the absolute one 5) (5) before the absolute two. It is therefore prior in conception by temporal priority. If this is not what is meant, then there is no priority. Rather, one is a condition of two, though a condition does not come after what it conditions; rather (6), it may coincide and exist together with it. Thus, there is no necessary priority here (7) other than temporal priority.
As for priority in place, that is another kind, whose origin lies in temporal priority, for—