It is to be known, that this sect hold the world to be eternal, and say that, as the sun’s light is to the heaven, so is the world to God. Nothing was that had not been, and nothing will be that is not. Further, according to the expounders of theological law, the world is a phenomenon of time. The philosophers assert, the meaning of that phenomenon is “procreation;” and the phenomenon of procreation is not contradictory to “permanency;” infinite permanency coalesces with time. [107] امكان _imkan_, “possibility,” signifies that, the existence or non-existence of which, is the necessary consequence of the essence of a thing. The philosophers distinguish by name four sorts of possibility: 1. _imkan zati_, “possibility with respect to essence;” 2. _imkan istidadi_, “possibility by disposition,” also called _mokúni_, “eventual;” 3. _imkan khaz_, “special possibility;” and 4. _imkan âam_, “general possibility.”――(See on this subject _Jorjani’s Definitions, Notices et Extraits des MSS._, vol. XI pp. 82-83.) [108] The word _âkl_ has a manifold and therefore often vague meaning; it corresponds sometimes to Holy Ghost. I thought it right to translate it hereafter by “intelligency,” in the double acceptation of “unbodied spirits” and “wisdom;” and also by “reason.” [109] His whole title is _Shemseddin Muhammed ben Yahja, ben Ali Lahjáni_, a native of Lahjan, a town in the province of Gilan. He wrote in A.D. 1474 a work under the title _Mefat-i-hul âjaib fi sherh-i-Gulshen-raz_, “the Key of Marvels, in explanation of the Mystery of the Rosebower.” The latter work was quoted vol. I. p. 82. [110] See vol. I. p. 2. note. [111] I shall attempt to sketch, in the smallest possible compass, the fundamental ideas of Asiatic cosmology, which are rather confusedly stated in the text. According to the Dasatir, God created primitively, immediately, and singly, _the supreme intelligence_; this produced the _second intelligence_, with the primitive soul and body; the second intelligence brought forth the third, and the corresponding heavenly sphere, with soul and body; and so down to the tenth intelligence, to wit that of _human reason_. The modern Orientals kept the first-born supreme intelligence, which to the Muhammedans was sanctified by the verse of the Koran, saying: _The first being which God created was intelligence_, and established a double series of descending intelligences and ascending heavenly spheres, as follows, according to the ancient and modern system: COSMOLOGY OF THE DASATIR. OF THE MODERN ORIENTALS. _Intelligences._ _Spheres._