Here the notion of ‘cause’ and the idea that the One is not ‘like (ka-)’ its effects are worked into the translation. The translation is still true to Plotinus’ thought. Indeed, in what immediately follows both Plotinus and the Arabic describe the One as a ‘principle,’ which in the Arabic becomes a kind of gloss on calling it a ‘cause’. Yet the changes soften the paradoxical effect of this opening sentence (which is itself based on Plato’s Parmenides, 160B). Nor is this an isolated case. We frequently find interesting, if subtle, changes introduced in the way that Plotinus is translated.