  In addition to refutations of 12 of the cosmogonic views (more of which he refutes in other works), Saadya provides us in the Amânât with proofs for the creation of the world ex nihilo by God. He proceeds in three stages: he begins with four proofs for the creation of the world (described respectively as proofs from finitude, composition, accidents, and time), moves on to three reasons for why that creation must be rooted in an external creator (as opposed to some idea of the self-createdness of the world), and ends by showing how that creation must furthermore be understood as creation ex nihilo (as opposed to a creation out of some pre-existent matter). As Harry Wolfson has shown, Saadya bases his four proofs for the createdness of the world on Islamic Kalâm traditions (see Wolfson, 1943).