Tahafut_al-Tahafut-transl-Engl-van-den-Bergh

I say:
is therefore nineteen; and that under each of the primary
intellects there are three things, another intellect and a soul
and body of a sphere. Therefore there must be in each
intellect a triple character, and in the first effect a plurality
can only be imagined in this way: (i) it is conscious of its
principle, (ii) it is conscious of itself, (iii) it is in itself possible,
since the necessity of its existence derives from another.
These are three conditions, and the most noble of these
three effects must be related to the most noble of these
conditions. Therefore the intellect proceeds from the first
effect; in so far as the first effect is conscious of its principle;
the soul of the sphere proceeds from the first effect, in so far
as the first effect is conscious of itself; and the body of the
sphere proceeds from the first effect, in so far as by itself the
first effect belongs to possible existence. We must still
explain why this triple character is found in the first effect,
although its principle is only one. We say that from the First
Principle only one thing proceeds, namely, the essence of
this intellect through which it is conscious of itself. The effect,
however, must by itself become conscious of its principle,
and this kind of consciousness cannot derive from its cause.
Also the effect by itself belongs to possible existence, and i
cannot receive this possibility from the First Principle, but
possesses it in its own essence. We do indeed regard it as
possible that one effect should proceed from the one,
although this effect possesses by itself and not through its
principle certain necessary qualities, either relative or
nonrelative. In this way a plurality arises, and so it becomes
the principle of the existence of plurality. Thus the composite
can meet the simple, as their meeting must needs take place
and cannot take place in any other g manner, and this is the
right and reasonable explanation, and it is in this way that
this philosophical theory must be understood.
All these are inventions fabricated against the philosophers by Avicenna,
Farabi, and others. But the true theory of the ancient philosophers is that
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