  In addition to identifying Will with Wisdom, Ibn Gabirol also identifies Will with Word (Fons Vitae 5.36, p. 323, line 17). Following on this identification, in a rather evocative set of passages, Ibn Gabirol likens the act of creation to God's utterance of word (Fons Vitae 5.43). While this theme is certainly not new within the history of Neoplatonic and Jewish ideas (suggesting resonance with the Longer Theology of Aristotle's reference to the Word [Ar. kalima], as well as resonance with Sêfer Yezîrah's emphasis on God's creation via Hebrew  letters[24]), what is new is Ibn Gabirol's unique way of fleshing that idea out in light of his overall metaphysics: Creation, writes Ibn Gabirol, is like a word that God utters, and that word is itself the coming together of voice (the universal matter), the audible sounds that make up a given word (manifest forms), and the actual meaning of the word (the hidden universal form which contains and sustains all manifest forms). For Ibn Gabirol, this analogy helps highlight his view of the unfolding divine Wisdom / Will giving way to a cosmos which is a complex blend of matters and forms, with a principle of pure universal matter and pure universal form at the very root of all existence.