Then, afterwards, by arms, then by motives and humiliations. And people in the beginning of time used to worship the sun, the moon, the stars, and other things, then by the will of God Almighty and by sending His messengers, they came to worship one God. As for the word "beginning of time" in ascent, I saw the backwardness of people in human crafts and civil sciences. Likewise, I erred and looked at time in descent, and I saw, for the most part, their elevation and progress in that. And by this elevation, and by measuring its degrees, and calculating the distance from the original state and closeness to it, all creation was divided into several ranks. The first rank is the rank of wild animals. The second rank is the rank of rough creatures. The third rank is the rank of people of literature, wit, civilization, and cities, and those in close eras. An example of the first rank is the lands of Sudan, who are always like grazing animals, not knowing what is lawful from what is unlawful, nor do they read or write, nor do they know anything of the matters that lead to livelihood or salvation. They only follow their desires to satisfy their lusts like beasts. They cultivate some things or hunt them to obtain their sustenance, and they set aside some shelters or tents to protect themselves from the heat of the sun and the like. An example of the second rank is the Arabs of the desert. They have a type of human society, familiarity, and affection, knowing what is lawful from what is unlawful, reading and writing, and other matters of religion and the like. However, their degree of progress in matters of livelihood, construction, human crafts, and rational and transmitted sciences is not complete, even if they know building, agriculture, raising animals, and the like. An example of the third rank is the lands of Egypt, the Levant, Yemen, Rome, Persia, the Franks, the Maghreb, and Sinara, and the lands of America for the most part, and many of the islands of the ocean sea. For all these nations are masters of construction, politics, sciences, crafts, laws, and trade.