The Improvement of Human Reason: Exhibited in the Life of Hai Ebn YokdhanIbn Tufayl, Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Malik
Islamic
The Improvement of Human Reason: Exhibited in the Life of Hai Ebn Yokdhan
Ibn Tufayl, Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Malik
Islamic philosophy -- Early works to 1800
Sec. 90. After he was wholly immers'd in the Speculation of these things,
and perfectly abstracted from all other Objects, and in the nearest
Approach[24]; he saw in the highest Sphere, beyond which there is no
_Body_, a Being free from Matter, which was not the Being of that _ONE,
TRUE ONE_, nor the Sphere itself, nor yet any thing different from them
both; but was like the Image of the Sun which appears in a well-polish'd
Looking-glass, which is neither the Sun nor the Looking-glass, and yet
not distinct from them. And he saw in the Essence of that separate
Sphere, such Perfection, Splendor and Beauty, as is too great to be
express'd by any Tongue, and too subtil to be cloath'd in Words; and he
perceiv'd that it was in the utmost Perfection of Delight and Joy,
Exultation and Gladness, by reason of its beholding that _TRUE_ Essence,
whose Glory be exalted,
Sec. 91. He saw also that the next Sphere to it, which is that of the Fixed
Stars, had an immaterial Essence, which was not the Essence of that
_TRUE ONE_, nor the Essence of that highest, separated Sphere, nor the
Sphere itself, and yet not different from these; but is like the Image
of the Sun which is reflected upon a Looking glass, from another Glass
placed opposite to the Sun; and he observ'd in this Essence also the
like Splendor, Beauty, Loveliness and Pleasure, which he had observ'd in
the Essence of the other highest Sphere. He saw likewise that the next
Sphere, which is the Sphere of _Saturn_, had an immaterial Essence,
which was none of those Essences he had seen before, nor yet different
from them; but was like the Image of the Sun, which appears in a Glass,
upon which it is reflected from a Glass which receiv'd that Reflection
from another Glass plac'd opposite to the Sun. And he saw in this
Essence too, the same Splendor and Delight which he had observ'd in the
former. And so in all the Spheres he observ'd distinct, immaterial
Essences, every one of which was not any of those which went before it,
not yet different from them; but was like the Image of the Sun reflected
from one Glass to another, according to the Order of the Spheres. And he
saw in every one of these Essences, such Beauty, Splendor, Pleasure and
Joy, as Eye hath not seen, nor Ear heard, nor hath it enter'd into the
Heart of Man to conceive; and so downwards, till he came to the lower
World, subject to Generation and Corruption, which comprehends all that
which is contained within the Sphere of the Moon.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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