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

sense-perception without sense-organs, and deny His movement
absolutely. Therefore either they do not ascribe life to the Creator in the
sense it has in the animal and which is a condition for the existence of
knowledge in man, or they identify it with perception in the way the
philosophers say that perception and knowledge in the First are identical
with life. Further, the meaning of ‘will’ in man and in animal is a desire
which rouses movement and which happens in animal and man to perfect
a deficiency in their essence, and it is impossible that there should be in
the Creator a desire because of an imperfection in His essence, which
could be a cause of movement and action either in Himself or in
something different from Himself. And how could an eternal will be
imagined which should be the cause of an act occurring without an
increase of the desire at the time of the act, , or how could a will and a
desire be imagined which would be before, during, and after the act in the
same state without any change occurring to them? And again, desire (in
so far as it is _the cause of movement) and movement are only found in
body, and desire is only found in the animate body. Therefore according to
the philosophers the meaning of ‘will’ in God is nothing but that every act
proceeds from Him through knowledge, and knowledge in so far as it is
knowledge is the knowledge of opposites, either of which can proceed
from Him. And the Knower is called excellent by the fact that there always
proceeds from Him the better of the opposites to the exclusion of the
worse. Therefore the philosophers say that three attributes are most
appropriate to the Creator, namely that He has knowledge, excellence,
and power. And they say that His power is not inferior to His will, as is the
case with man.
All this is the theory of the philosophers on this problem and in the way
we have stated it here with its proofs, it is a persuasive not a
demonstrative statement. It is for you to inquire about these questions in
the places where they are treated in the books of demonstration, if you are
one of the people of perfect eudaemonia, and if you are one of those who
learn the arts the function of which is proof. For the demonstrative arts are
very much like the practical; for just as a man who is not a craftsman
cannot perform the function of craftsmanship, in the same way it is not
possible for him who has not learned the arts of demonstration to perform
the function of demonstration which is demonstration itself: indeed this is
still more necessary for this art than for any other-and this is not generally
338