The One · τὸ ἕν

Beyond being, beyond intellect, beyond number — not the first thing in a series but the source of there being a series at all. Plotinus insists that even calling it "the One" is a concession, since it has no attribute whatever, and that the honest approach is negation: not this, not that. The Kabbalah says the same in Hebrew and goes one step further — Ein Sof, "without end," is not even a name but a description of the failure of names. The rhyme is close because it is inheritance, not coincidence.