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

It may be said that if it is asserted that the First knows its
own self as a principle by way of relation, the knowledge of
two correlatives is one and the same, for the man who
knows the son knows him through one single knowledge in
which the knowledge of the father, of fatherhood, and
sonhood are comprised, so that the objects of knowledge
are manifold, but the knowledge is one. ‘ And in the same
way the First knows its essence as a principle for the other
things besides itself and so the knowledge is one, although
what is known is manifold. Further, if the First thinks this
relation in reference to one single effect and its own relation
towards it, and this does not imply a plurality, then a plurality
is not implied by an addition of things which generically do
not imply a plurality. ‘ And likewise he who knows a thing
and knows his knowing this thing, knows this thing through
this knowledge, and therefore all knowledge is selfknowledge
connected with the knowledge of the thing
known, ‘ and the known is manifold, but knowledge forms a
unity. ; An indication of this is also that you theologians
believe that the things known to God are infinite, but His
knowledge is one, and you do not attribute to God an infinite
number of cognitions; if, indeed, the manifoldness of the
known implied a plurality in the knowledge itself, well, let
there then be an infinite number of cognitions in the essence
of God. But this is absurd.
Then Ghazali says, answering the philosophers:
We say: Whenever knowledge is one in every respect, it
cannot be imagined that it should be attached to two things
known; on the contrary, this determines a certain plurality,
according to the assumption and tenet of the philosophers
themselves about the meaning of ‘plurality’, so that they
even make the excessive claim that if the First had a quiddity
to which existence were attributed, this would imply a
plurality. And they do not think that to a single unity
possessing reality existence also can be attributed; no, they
assert that the existence is brought in relation to the reality
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