13. Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Yahya said: Sa`d ibn `Abd Allah said, on the authority of Ayyub ibn Nuh that I wrote to Abu al-Hasan al-Naqi asking him about Allah, the Mighty and High: “Did He have knowledge of things before He created them or did He know them only after He created them?” He wrote in his own handwriting: “Allah’s knowledge of things was the same before He created them and after He created them.”