Refutation of All Heresies, Vol. 2

The same Seventh Power, which was a power existing in the Boundless Power and was begotten before all the Aeons, is the Seventh Power of whom Moses said: “And the Spirit of God was borne above the water”—that is, the spirit containing all things within itself, an image of the Boundless Power, of whom Simon says he is the "image of the imperishable form which alone orders all things." Now when some such preparations of the cosmos had occurred, God, he says, moulded man, taking dust from the earth. But he fashioned him not simple, but twofold (masculo-feminine) according to image and resemblance. The spirit which was borne above the water is an image; if this spirit is not made a complete likeness, it perishes with the world, as it abides only potentially and does not exist in activity. This is the meaning of the saying, “Lest ye be judged with the world.” But if it be made a complete likeness and is born from an Indivisible Point, the small will become great. It will be great in the Boundless and Unchanging Aeon, being born no more.

How did God form man in Paradise? Let Paradise be the womb. Moses, speaking in allegory, calls Paradise the womb. If God fashions man in his mother’s womb—that is, in Paradise—let Paradise be the womb and Edem the placenta. “And a river went forth from Edem and watered Paradise” (this is the navel-string). p. 253. p. 254.