,

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This is also indicated by the very number of the horses (7,736)(33), typifying the disposition of practical philosophy according to virtue. For the number seven thousand seven hundred, being temporal, signifies swift movement in the virtues, while thirty-six signifies the action of nature that runs together with the virtues.

And eight hundred and forty-five mules. According to the commendable account, a mule is the disposition that is completely barren of evil. Therefore, very fittingly and properly in the spirit of Scripture, the one chosen to rule Israel was commanded to sit not on a horse but on a mule, the account indicating that the contemplative mind, ruling over the thoughts and visions in existing things and over its own movements, must have a disposition barren of evil, that is, an evil that neither conceives at all nor gives birth; on which it must be borne as it moves in contemplation, lest, while making a spiritual examination of beings, it fall unawares to one of the evil spirits which are wont to corrupt the pure disposition of the heart through one of the sensibles.

But we also know the mule is used in Scripture for blame, (14C_080> as in *do not be like the horse and the mule, which have no understanding*, the account calling a horse the disposition that neighs for the pleasures of the passions, and a mule the disposition that neither conceives nor gives birth to the good, which the account has forbidden equally to those who aspire to salvation, the one as active in evil, the other as having inaction in virtue. And Absalom’s mule is also taken for blame; sitting on it, he went out seeking the death of his father, the Spirit indicating in these things that one who is wounded by some vainglory because of virtue or knowledge, vainly nurturing the elaborate and mixed-up hair of conceit, displays his moral conduct like a mule for the deception of onlookers; suspended upon it, he thinks he has subdued his father who begot him through the teaching of the Word, wishing, as an arrogant man, to draw tyrannically to himself all the God-given glory of virtue and knowledge that belongs to the father. But such a man, having gone out into the breadth(34) of natural contemplation in the spirit for the rational war for truth, through living sensation is caught by his hair in the thicket of the oak of material visions, having his empty conceit itself binding his mind to death, suspending him between heaven and between earth. For the vainglorious man does not have knowledge like a heaven drawing him up from the conceit that pulls him down, nor again a ground—I mean the foundation of practice in humility—pulling him down from the puffing-up that lifts him up; whom, even in death, his teacher who begot him mourns out of love for mankind, as one who loves God, in imitation of God, who does not desire the death of the sinner, but that he should turn and live.

But that we may contemplate the passage in another way, (14C_082> David clearly represents the practical mind, and Absalom the conceit born from the practical mind through the union of the mind with sensation. For sensation is the daughter of the king of Geshur, whom David took and begot Absalom. And Geshur is interpreted as 'guidance of a wall.' A wall is clearly the body, and the guidance of the body is the law of the body, that is, sensation, from which Absalom is born, interpreted as 'peace of the father is supposed,' which is clearly conceit. For supposing that we are at peace from the passions, we construct conceit; which the great David, knowing it had risen up against him, since he continually passed through action with knowledge, left the tent and Jerusalem and Judea, and fled across the Jordan to the land of Gilead, that is, to the 'transmigration of mourning' or the 'transmigration of witness' or the 'revelation of them,' judging himself unworthy, because of the conceit that had risen up, of the holy tent, that is, of mystical theology, and of Jerusalem, that is, of the

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∆ηλοῖ δὲ τοῦτο καὶ αὐτὸς τῶν ἵππων ὁ ἀριθμός (7.736)(33), τὴν κατ᾽ ἀρετὴν τῆς πρακτικῆς φιλοσοφίας ἕξιν τυπῶν. Ὁ γὰρ ἑπτακισχίλια ἑπτακόσια ἀριθμὸς ὡς χρονικὸς σημαίνει τὴν ἐν ἀρεταῖς ὀξεῖαν κίνησιν, ὁ δὲ τριακονταὲξ τὴν ταῖς ἀρεταῖς συντρέχουσαν τῆς φύσεως πρᾶξιν.

Ἡμίονοι δὲ ὀκτακόσιοι τεσσαρακονταπέντε. Ἡμίονός ἐστι κατὰ τὸν ἐπαινούμενον λόγον ἡ παντελῶς κατὰ κακίαν ἄγονος ἕξις. ∆ιὸ πάνυ τῷ πνεύματι τῆς Γραφῆς προσφυῶς τε καὶ πρεπόντως ὁ βασιλεύειν λαχὼν τοῦ Ἰσραὴλ οὐχ ἵππῳ ἀλλ᾽ ἡμιόνῳ καθέζεσθαι προσετάγη, τοῦ λόγου δηλοῦντος ὅτι δεῖ τὸν θεωρητικὸν νοῦν, βασιλεύοντα τῶν ἐν τοῖς οὖσι νοημάτων τε καὶ θεαμάτων καὶ τῶν οἰκείων κινημάτων, ἕξιν ἄγονον ἔχειν κακίας, τουτέστι κακίαν μήτε συλλαμβάνουσαν παντελῶς μήτε τίκτουσαν· ἐφ᾽ ἧς αὐτὸν δεῖ περὶ θεωρίαν κινούμενον φέρεσθαι, μήπως, πνευματικὴν ποιούμενος τὴν τῶν ὄντων διάσκεψιν, λαθὼν περιπέσῃ τινὶ τῶν παραφθείρειν διά τινος τῶν αἰσθητῶν πεφυκότων πονηρῶν πνευμάτων τὴν ἁγνὴν τῆς καρδίας διάθεσιν.

Οἴδαμεν δὲ καὶ ἐπὶ ψόγῳ κειμένην τῇ Γραφῇ τὴν ἡμίονον, (14Γ_080> ὡς τὸ μὴ γίνεσθε ἵππος καὶ ἡμίονος, οἷς οὐκ ἔστι σύνεσις, ἵππον καλέσαντος τοῦ λόγου τὴν χρεμετίζουσαν ἕξιν ταῖς τῶν παθῶν ἡδοναῖς, καὶ ἡμίονον τὴν τὸ καλὸν μήτε συλλαμβάνουσαν μήτε τίκτουσαν ἕξιν, ἃς ἀπηγόρευσεν ὁ λόγος ἰσοτίμως τοῖς σωτηρίας ἐφιεμένοις, τὴν μὲν ὡς ἐνεργητικὴν κακίας, τὴν δὲ ὡς ἀρετῆς ἀπραξίαν ἔχουσαν. Καὶ ἡ Ἀβεσσαλὼμ δὲ ἡμίονος ἐπὶ ψόγῳ λαμβάνεται· ἐφ᾽ ἧς καθίσας ἐξῆλθε τὸν θάνατον ἐπιζητῶν τοῦ γεννήσαντος, δηλοῦντος ἐν τούτοις τοῦ Πνεύματος ὡς ὁ κενοδοξίᾳ τινὶ δι᾽ ἀρετὴν ἢ γνῶσιν τρωθείς, τὴν κόμην ματαίως διατρέφων τῆς οἰήσεως ἐπιτετεχνασμένην τε καὶ μικτήν, ὥσπερ ἡμίονον πρὸς ἀπάτην τῶν θεωμένων τὴν ἠθικὴν ἐπιδείκνυται πολιτείαν· ἐφ᾽ ἧς αἰωρούμενος οἴεται τὸν γεννήσαντα διὰ τῆς διδασκαλίας τοῦ Λόγου πατέρα χειρώσασθαι, πᾶσαν βουλόμενος τὴν τῷ πατρὶ προσοῦσαν θεόθεν δόξαν τῆς ἀρετῆς καὶ τῆς γνώσεως, ὡς ὑπερήφανος, εἰς ἑαυτὸν τυραννικῶς ἐφελκύσασθαι. Ἀλλ᾽ ὁ τοιοῦτος, ἐξελθὼν εἰς τὸ πλάτος(34) τῆς ἐν πνεύματι φυσικῆς θεωρίας πρὸς τὸν ὑπὲρ ἀληθείας λογικὸν πόλεμον, διὰ τὴν ζῶσαν αἴσθησιν τῷ δάσει τῆς δρυὸς τῶν ὑλικῶν θεαμάτων κρατεῖται τῆς κόμης, αὐτὴν ἔχων δεσμοῦσαν τὸν νοῦν πρὸς θάνατον τὴν διάκενον οἴησιν, τὴν κρεμνῶσαν αὐτὸν ἀναμέσον τοῦ οὐρανοῦ καὶ ἀναμέσον τῆς γῆς. Οὐ γὰρ ἔχει γνῶσιν ὁ κενόδοξος καθάπερ οὐρανὸν ἀνέλκουσαν αὐτὸν τῆς κατασπώσης οἰήσεως, οὐδ᾽ αὖ πάλιν γῆντὴν ἐν τῇ ταπεινώσει λέγω βάσιν τῆς πράξεωςκαθέλκουσαν αὐτὸν τῆς ἀνασπώσης αὐτὸν φυσιώσεως· ὃν πενθεῖ καὶ θανόντα, διὰ φιλανθρωπίαν, ὡς φιλόθεος, ὁ γεννήσας διδάσκαλος μιμήσει Θεοῦ, μὴ βουλόμενος τὸν θάνατον τοῦ ἁμαρτωλοῦ ὡς τὸ ἐπιστρέψαι καὶ ζῆν αὐτόν.

Ἵνα δὲ καὶ κατ᾽ ἄλλον τρόπον θεωρήσωμεν τὸν τόπον, (14Γ_082> ∆αβὶδ τὸν πρακτικὸν νοῦν σαφῶς παραδείκνυσιν, Ἀβεσσαλὼμ δὲ τὴν ἐκ τοῦ πρακτικοῦ κατὰ τὴν τοῦ νοῦ πρὸς αἴσθησιν συνουσίαν τικτομένην οἴησιν. Αἴσθησις γάρ ἐστιν ἡ θυγάτηρ τοῦ βασιλέως Γεσσούρ, ἣν λαβὼν ὁ ∆αβὶδ τὸν Ἀβεσσαλὼμ ἐγέννησεν. Ἑρμηνεύεται δὲ Γεσσοὺρ 'ὁδηγία τοίχου.' Τοῖχος δὲ τὸ σῶμα προδήλως καθέστηκεν, ὁδηγία δὲ τοῦ σώματός ἐστιν ὁ νόμος τοῦ σώματος, ἤγουν ἡ αἴσθησις, ἐξ ἧς γεννᾶται Ἀβεσσαλώμ, 'πατρὸς εἰρήνη νομιζομένη' ἑρμηνευόμενος, ὅπέρ ἐστι σαφῶς ἡ οἴησις. Νομίζοντες γὰρ εἰρηνεύειν παθῶν, συνιστῶμεν τὴν οἴησιν· ἣν ἐπαναστᾶσαν αὐτῷ γνοὺς ὁ μέγας ∆αβίδ, ἅτε γνώσει τὴν πρᾶξιν διατελῶν καὶ τὴν σκηνὴν καὶ τὴν Ἱερουσαλὴμ καὶ τὴν Ἰουδαίαν ἀφείς, φεύγει πέραν τοῦ Ἰορδάνου πρὸς τὴν γῆν Γαλαάδ, τουτέστιν εἰς τὴν 'μετοικίαν τοῦ πένθους' ἢ τὴν 'μετοικίαν τῆς μαρτυρίας' ἢ τὴν 'ἀποκάλυψιν αὐτῶν,' ἀνάξιον ἑαυτὸν κρίνας, διὰ τὴν ἐπαναστᾶσαν οἴησιν, τῆς ἁγίας σκηνῆς, τουτέστι τῆς μυστικῆς θεολογίας, καὶ τῆς Ἱερουσαλὴμ τουτέστι τῆς