Refutation of All Heresies, Vol. 2

p. 247.

man who has been begotten from blood, and that the Boundless Power dwells in him, which power he says is the root of the universe. However, this Boundless Power—the fire according to Simon—is not simple, as many say who think the four elements are simple and that fire is simple. Rather, there is a certain double nature of fire; of this double nature, he calls one part hidden and the other manifest. The hidden parts have been contained within the manifest parts of the fire, and the manifest have come into being through the hidden. This is what Aristotle calls potentiality and action, and what Plato calls the intelligible and the perceptible. original: "intellectual" and "perceptible"

p. 248.

The manifest part of the fire contains within itself all that one can perceive or that might escape notice, yet remains visible. The hidden part contains everything that one can perceive as something intelligible but which evades the senses, or which one passes over because it is not thoroughly understood. Generally, it must be said that of all things perceptible and intelligible—which Simon calls hidden and manifest—the supercelestial fire is the Treasure-house, like the great tree seen by Nebuchadnezzar in a dream, from which all flesh is fed. He considers the trunk, the boughs, the leaves, and the outer bark to be the manifest part of the fire. All these things, which are attached to the great tree, the flame of the all-devouring fire causes to vanish. However, the fruit of the tree, if it is made into a perfect likeness and has received its own shape, is placed in a storehouse rather than the fire. For the fruit, he says, was produced to be put in a storehouse, while the chaff was produced to be cast into the fire; the chaff is the trunk which has