'Once, when mind had become intent on the things which are, and my understanding was raised to a great height, while my bodily senses were withdrawn as in sleep, when men are weighed down by too much food or by the fatigue of the body, it seemed that someone immensely great of infinite dimensions happened to call my name and said to me: 'What do you wish to hear and behold, and having beheld what do you wish to learn and know?'

'For this reason, of all living beings on earth, Man alone is double: mortal because of the body, immortal because of the real Man. For, although being immortal and having authority over all he suffers mortal things which are subject to destiny. Then: although above the harmony of the cosmos, he has become a slave within it. He is beyond gender as he has been born from a Father beyond gender; and he never sleeps as he is ruled by one who never sleeps.'