e earth, the sun in that next, the morning star and
Mercury in the orbits which move opposite to the sun but with equal
swiftness--this being the reason why they overtake and are overtaken by
one another. All these bodies became living creatures, and learnt their
appointed tasks, and began to move, the nearer more swiftly, the remoter
more slowly, according to the diagonal movement of the other. And since
this was controlled by the movement of the same, the seven planets in
their courses appeared to describe spirals; and that appeared fastest
which was slowest, and that which overtook others appeared to be
overtaken by them. And God lighted a fire in the second orbit from the
earth which is called the sun, to give light over the whole heaven, and
to teach intelligent beings that knowledge of number which is derived
from the revolution of the same. Thus arose day and night, which are
the periods of the most intelligent nature; a month is created by the
revolution of the moon, a year by that of the sun. Other periods of
wonderful length and complexity are not observed by men in general;
there is moreover a cycle or perfect year at the completion of which
they all meet and coincide...To this end the stars came into being, that
the created heaven might imitate the eternal nature.

Thus far the universal animal was made in the divine image, but the
other animals were not as yet included in him. And God created them
according to the patterns or species of them which existed in the divine
original. There are four of them: one of gods, another of birds, a third
of fishes, and a fourth of animals. The gods were made in the form of a
circle, which is the most perfect figure and the figure of the universe.
They were created chiefly of fire, that they might be bright, and were
made to know and follow the best, and to be scattered over the heavens,
of which they were to be the glory. Two kinds of motion were assigned to
them--first, the revolution in the same and around the same, in peaceful
unchanging thought of the same; and to this was added a forward motion
which was under the control of the same. Thus then the fixed stars were
created, being divine and eternal animals, revolving on the same spot,
and the wandering stars, in their courses, were created in the manner
already described. The earth, which is our nurse, clinging around the
pole extended through the universe, he made to be the guardian and
artificer of night and day, f