style and handwriting to more than one writer. The assumption of many creators would necessitate either a plurality of identical beings which, having nothing to distinguish them, could not but be one and the same—that is, God—or of different beings which, having different qualities and lacking some qualities which others possess, can no longer be infinite and perfect, and therefore must themselves be created, not self-existent. Every plurality, being a combination of units, presupposes an original unity; hence, even those that assume a plurality of gods must logically admit the prior existence of a Divine Unity—a Neoplatonic argument borrowed by Baḥya from the Brothers of Purity. The Creator can not share with the creatures accidents and substance. The assumption of a plurality, which is an accident and not a substance, would lower God, the Creator, to the level of creatures. The assumption of two creators would necessitate insufficiency of either of them or interference of one with the power of the other; and as the limitation deprives the Creator of His power, unity alone establishes Divine omnipotence. Bahya then endeavors to define God as the absolute unity by distinguishing God's unity from all other possible unities. Bahya's work in this regard prompted Yemen's 12th-century Jewish philosopher, Natan'el al-Fayyumi, to compile a work that counters some of the basic arguments espoused by Ibn Paquda, and where al-Fayummi argues a more profound unity of God than that expressed by Bahya Ibn Paquda. See Divine simplicity. Attributes of God Adopting this Neoplatonic idea of God as the one who can only be felt by the longing soul, but not grasped by the reason, Bahya finds it superfluous to prove the incorporeality of God. The question with him is rather, How can one know a being who is so far beyond our mental comprehension that we can not even define Him? In answering this, Bahya distinguishes between two different kinds of attributes; namely, essential attributes and such as are derived from activity; see Negative theology. Three attributes of God are essential, though one derives them from creation: God's existence; since a non-existent being can not create things God's unity God's eternity; since the last cause of all things is necessarily one and everlasting. But Bahya holds that these three attributes are one and inseparable from the nature of God; in fact, they are only negative attributes: God can not be non-existent, or a non-eternal