Previously Unpublished Works, Fascicle 1

He Referring to Plato, mentioned on the previous page taught that the highest undivided trinity ought not only to be believed, but he also proved it to be so with certain reasons. And Aristotle says original: "Per hunc numerum trinarium adhibuimus nos magnificare Deum unum Creatorem eminentem proprietatibus eorum que sunt creata." See Aristotle, On the Heavens, book 1, chapter 2.: "Through this number three we have applied ourselves to magnify the one God, the Creator, who stands above the characteristics of created things." And so, through this, he shows that this triple number, or trinity, exists in every thing. But this trinity is first in the Creator, and a certain triplicity is found in all other things in imitation of Him. Since Aristotle perfected philosophy more fully and perceived things much more deeply, if Plato showed a true trinity of persons, Aristotle did so much more forcefully. Avicenna Avicenna, or Ibn Sina, was a Persian polymath whose works on philosophy and medicine were central to medieval learning. also speaks of the Holy Spirit. The glory of the Spirit was less known even to the faithful (as is clear with the Greeks) than that of the Father and the Son. Aethicus the philosopher also says that there is a Holy Spirit, as is clear from his book On Cosmography, which he wrote using a mixture of Hebrew, Greek, and Latin words. Saint Jerome and others testify to this, as does

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the word of the father, and the father, as will be touched upon more in its proper place. They also prove that there is one God of infinite essence, infinite power, infinite wisdom, and infinite goodness, and that these are one and the same. They say this because there is no composition, difference, or accident in God. They also give many excellent accounts concerning the Lord Jesus Christ.

For Albumasar Abu Ma'shar, an influential Persian astrologer whose work linked the stars to historical and religious events. speaks of Him in many places, as seen in both translations of the Greater Introduction to Astronomy original: Majoris Introductorii in Astronomiam,

See another form of this quotation in the Arabic-Latin version of Aristotle's On the Heavens: "According to this number we are bound to magnify God the Creator, who is removed from the ways of created beings." Averroes adds the comment: "in prayers and sacrifices, for all these things are done only to magnify the Creator."

This reference to Avicenna appears in the "Foundations of Moral Philosophy."

This passage from the Introduction to Astronomy describes a celestial sign: A girl rises in its first decan, as the Persians, Chaldeans, and Egyptians, and the teachers Hermes and Ascalius, teach from the earliest age. She is a girl with the Persian name Secdenidos, or darçama, which in Arabic is interpreted as ad re nedefa, meaning a pure virgin. I say she is a girl, an immaculate virgin, beautiful in body, lovely in face, modest in dress, with long hair, holding two ears of grain while sitting on a decorated throne. She nurses and rightly feeds a boy in a place called Hebrew. This boy is named by certain nations as Jesus, meaning Savior, whom we call Christ in Greek.