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

identical with the knower of the shadow, who is pleased with
it, even then he would not be similar to the First. For the First
is both knower and agent, and His knowledge is the principle
of His act; and His consciousness of Himself as the principle
of the universe is the cause of the emanation of the universe
and the existing order; and the existing order is the
consequence of the order thought of, in the sense that it
occurs through Him and that He is the agent of the universe
without there being an addition to His knowledge of the
universe, since His knowledge of the universe is the cause
of the emanation of the universe from Him, and His
knowledge of the universe does not add anything to His selfconsciousness,
for He could not be self-conscious if He did
not know that He is the principle of the universe, the object
of His knowledge is in first intention His own essence, and
the universe is the object of His knowledge in second
intention, ‘ and this is the meaning of His being an agent.
And when it is said that He has power, nothing is meant but
that He is an agent in the way we have stated, namely, that
His existence is the existence from which the powers
emanate through the emanation of which the arrangement of
the world is ordered in the most perfect way possible in
accomplishment and beauty. And when it is said that He is
willing, nothing is meant but that He is not inattentive to what
emanates from Him and that He is not opposed to it; no, He
knows that in the emanation of the universe His own
perfection is attained, and it is permissible to say in this
sense that He is satisfied, and it is permissible to say of the
satisfied that He is willing; and His will is nothing but His very
power and His power is nothing but His very knowledge and
His knowledge nothing but His very essence, so that
everything is reduced to His very essence. For His
knowledge of things is not derived from things, for otherwise
He would acquire His quality and perfection through another,
and this is impossible in the necessary existent. But our
knowledge is twofold: partly knowledge of a thing which
results from its form like our knowledge of the form of
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