the Sufis; on the contrary, some of the
sages of Greece believed in it, like Aristotle, who said, "The simple
truth is all things, but it is not any one of them." In this case,
"simple" is the opposite of "composed"; it is the isolated Reality, which
is purified and sanctified from composition and division, and which
resolves Itself into innumerable forms. Therefore, Real Existence is all
things, but It is not one of the things.

Briefly, the believers in pantheism think that Real Existence can be
compared to the sea, and that beings are like the waves of the sea. These
waves, which signify the beings, are innumerable forms of that Real
Existence; therefore, the Holy Reality is the Sea of Preexistence,(172)
and the innumerable forms of the creatures are the waves which appear.

Likewise, they compare this theory to real unity and the infinitude of
numbers; the real unity reflects itself in the degrees of infinite
numbers, for numbers are the repetition of the real unity. So the number
two is the repetition of one, and it is the same with the other numbers.

One of their proofs is this: all beings are things known of God; and
knowledge without things known does not exist, for knowledge is related to
that which exists, and not to nothingness. Pure nonexistence can have no
specification or individualization in the degrees of knowledge. Therefore,
the realities of beings, which are the things known of God the Most High,
have the existence which knowledge has,(173) since they have the form of
the Divine Knowledge, and they are preexistent, as the Divine Knowledge is
preexistent. As knowledge is preexistent, the things known are equally so,
and the individualizations and the specifications of beings, which are the
preexistent knowledges of the Essence of Unity, are the Divine Knowledge
itself. For the realities of the Essence of Unity, knowledge, and the
things known, have an absolute unity which is real and established.
Otherwise, the Essence of Unity would become the place of multiple
phenomena, and the multiplicity of preexistences(174) would become
necessary, which is absurd.

So it is proved that the things known constitute knowledge itself, and
knowledge the Essence itself--that is to say, that the Knower, the
knowledge and the things known are one single reality. And if one imagines
anything outside of this, it necessitates coming back to the multiplicity
of preexistences and to enchainment;(175) and preexistences en