And Abu Muhammad said in his book known as the Book of [The Beginning]: Yunus ibn Zabyan, peace be upon him, asked Musa ibn Ja'far, may His might be exalted: What is the first thing God Almighty created?

He said: The first thing God Almighty created was the People of Light as shadows. Then He divided them into phantoms, then He made them paths, then luminous persons. So He made them sensing, perceiving. Then He appeared to them as their likeness and called them to Himself, and they answered Him. Then He changed the appearance for them, and they answered Him. So He did that seven times while they were answering Him.

Then He spread a second surface, then He divided it into shadows, then phantoms, then paths, then persons. Then He appeared to them [as] their likeness, so they acknowledged. So He did that seven times just as He did with the People of the First Light.

Then He did that a third, and a fourth, and a fifth, and a sixth [time], until He ended at the creation of the Seventh Light. And He placed in them equal capacity, just as He placed it in the People of the First Light and in the People of the Second Light, as justice from Him, the Almighty.