exalted above all the perfect." Nicotheos has revealed the
Invisible and the perfect Triple-power. All perfect men have seen Him,
they have declared Him and have given Him glory with their own lips)
(12).] That is the Alone-begotten Word hidden in Setheus, He who is
called the Dark Ray (13), for it is the excess of His light alone that
is darkness. Setheus reigns by Him.

The Alone-begotten holds in His right hand twelve Paternities, the
types of the twelve Apostles (14), while in His left hand are thirty
Powers. Each of them emanates twelve two-faced aeons after the type of
Setheus. One of these faces beholds the Deep which is in the Interior
[of the Temple of the Pleroma]; the other looks without upon the
Triple-Power. Each of the Paternities in His right hand emanates three
hundred and sixty-five powers, according to the word that David spake,
saying, "I will cherish the crown of the year in Thy Righteousness."
For all these Powers encircle the Alone-begotten Son as a crown,
illuminating the aeons with the light of the Alone-begotten, as it is
written, "In Thy light shall we see light." And the Alone-begotten is
lifted up upon [the powers], as again it is written, "The Chariot of
God is a myriad of multiplications"; and again, "There are millions of
beings who rejoice; the Lord is in them" (15).

This is He who dwells in the Monad in Setheus, which comes from the
place concerning which one does not ask, "Where is it?" She comes from
Him who is before these Fullnesses. From the One and Only, even from
Him has come forth the Monad, as a ship laden with all good things, or
as a full field planted with every manner of tree, or as a city filled
with men of every race and with all the statues of the king. Thus it
is with the Monad where the Whole is found.

Upon her head twelve Monads form a crown; each has emanated another
twelve. Ten Decads encircle her neck, nine Enneads are about her
heart, and seven Hebdomads are under her feet, and each has emanated a
Hebdomad. The firmament which surrounds her is like a tower with
twelve gates, and at every gate are twelve myriads of powers;
archangels are they called, or angels. This is the metropolis of the
Alone-begotten Son (16).

Now it is of the Alone-begotten that Phosilampes (17) has said, "Before
all things is He." He it is who has come forth from the Infinite; He
who has engendered Himself there and has no seal nor form and has given
birth to Himself. Thi