Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 8.djvu/246

234 the thought of the keenest-witted of human beings.’ ‘O sage,’ rejoined the prince, ‘thou hast set before me of the power of the Creator what may not be denied; but tell me how He called His creatures into existence.’ ‘[He created them] by [the sole power of] His Word,’ answered Shimas, ‘which existed before time, and with it He created all things.’ ‘Then,’ said the prince, ‘God (be His name magnified and His power exalted!) only willed the existence of created things, before they came into being?’ ‘And of His will,’ replied Shimas, ‘He created them with His Word and but for His speech and Manifest Word, the creation had not come into existence. And, O my son, there is no man can tell thee other than this that I have said, except he pervert the words handed down to us of the law of God and turn the truths thereof from their evident meaning. And such a perversion is their saying that the Word hath power [of itself] and I take refuge with God from such a conclusion. Nay, the meaning of our saying that God (to whom belong might and majesty) created the world with His Word is that He (exalted be His name!) is One in His essence and His attributes and not that His Word hath power [of itself]. On the contrary, power is one of God’s attributes, even as speech and other attributes of perfection are attributes of God (exalted be His dignity and magnified be His dominion!); wherefore He may not be conceived without His Word, nor may His Word be conceived without Him; for, with His Word, God (extolled be His praise!) created all His creatures, and without His Word, he created nought. Indeed, He created all things but by His Word