If this (actualization begotten by the First, this external
actualization) be all things, then that (One) is above all things,
and consequently above being. If then (this external actualization)
be all things, and be before all things, it does not occupy the same
rank as the remainder (of all other things); and must, in this respect
also, be superior to being, and consequently also to intelligence; for
there is Something superior to intelligence. Essence is not, as you
might say, dead; it is not devoid of life or thought; for intelligence
and essence are identical. Intelligible entities do not exist before
the intelligence that thinks them, as sense-objects exist before the
sensation which perceives them. Intelligence itself is the things that
it thinks, since their forms are not introduced to them from without.
From where indeed would intelligence receive these forms? Intelligence
exists with the intelligible things; intelligence is identical with
them, is one with them. Reciprocally, intelligible entities do not
exist without their matter (that is, Intelligence).