The Book of Knowing the Creations

I. RA'S DESCRIPTION OF HIS CREATION

Thus said Ra, the Lord of All, Lord of the Utmost Limits, after He had come into being: I am the one who came into being as Kheper, He who comes into being and brings into being. When I came into being, being itself came into being. All beings came into being after I came into being. Many were the beings that came forth from the commands of my mouth. Heaven had not yet come into being. Nor had earth come into being. Nor had the ground been created or the things which creep and crawl upon it. I raised up beings in the primordial waters as inert things. I found no place on which to stand. I formed it from the desire in my heart; I laid the foundation through Maat. I created forms of every kind. Many were the forms which issued forth from the commands of my mouth. Not yet had I established Shu, the power and principle of light and air. Nor sent forth Tefnut, the power and principle of moisture. There existed no one who acted together with me. I conceived it in my own heart. And there came into being a vast number of forms of divine beings as forms of offspring and forms of their off-spring from them. . .

I came forth from among the plants which I created and I created all things which creep and crawl and all that exists among them. Then by the power and principles of light and air and the power and principle of moisture, heaven and earth were brought into being, and by earth and heaven Osiris, Horus, Seth, Isis and Nephthys were brought into being from the womb, one after another, and they gave birth to the multitudes in this land.