[1]“Since people have said many contradictory things of all sorts about the universe and god, I have not learned the truth. Make the truth plain to me, master; it is you alone on whom I may depend to reveal it.”

“Mark my words, then, Hermes Trismegistus, and remember what I say. I will not hesitate to speak what occurs to me.[2][]Hear how it is with god and the universe, my child.”

“God, eternity, cosmos, time, becoming.”

“God makes eternity; eternity makes the cosmos; the cosmos makes time; time makes becoming. The essence (so to speak) of god is[the good, the beautiful, happiness,]wisdom; the essence of eternity is identity; of the cosmos, order; of time, change; of becoming, life and death. But the energy of god is mind and soul; the energy of eternity is permanence and immortality; of the cosmos, recurrence and counter-recurrence; of time, increase and decrease; of becoming, quality 〈and quantity〉. Eternity, therefore, is in god, the cosmos in eternity, time in the cosmos, and becoming in time. And while eternity has stood still in god's presence, the cosmos moves in eternity, time passes in the cosmos, but becoming comes to be in time.”

[3]“The source of all things is god; eternity is their essence; the cosmos is their matter. Eternity is the power of god, and the cosmos is eternity's work, but the cosmos has never come into being; it comes to be forever from eternity.[…]