 Avempace sees a hierarchy in the three simple expressions: The name precedes the verb, and this, the instrument. Verbs are either existential or non-existential. By contrast to Alfarabi, the basic function of existential verbs is connective, and it is shared with the particle. The difference between the particle and the eanxistential verb is that time inheres to the existential verb, but it is absent in the particles (IB-taaliq: 73. 11–15).