 By definition, separate intellects are intellects in actu whose substantiation is the very act of thinking. Without knowledge, the essence of the separate intellect would be nullified. Thus, separate intellects, just like the First Intellect, have actual knowledge of the forms of all existents. In actual thinking, the knower, the known object, and the act of thinking are identical (Tiqqun n.42: 65), the relationship of identity being particularly formal as Aristotle’s dictum of cognitive identification establishes (De Anima 3.8 431b21). This means that in separate intellects “essence/form”, the known object and the act of thinking are the same. In this way, the First Intellect is said to be “the formal cause” of the separate intellects on the grounds that It provides them with “their forms”, i.e., the intelligible forms which they apprehend and by means of which they are what they are, intellects in actu (Tiqqun n.69:  98).[4]