Tripartite Tractate 5

1The Father brought forth the All like a small child, like a drop from a spring, like a blossom from [a vine], like [a flower], like a <planting> [. . .], so that it needed to obtain [nourishment] and growth and perfection. He held it back for a season. The one who conceived of it from the first instant of the beginning possessed and beheld it from the first instant of the beginning, but he <concealed> it for those who were the first to originate from him. Not from envy, but that the aeons could not receive their perfection (prematurely) from the first instant of the beginning and could not lift up themselves to the glory (that belongs solely to) the Father, and could not suppose that they possess all this from themselves. Instead, just as he willed to allow them to be able to come into being, so that they could also come into being as perfect entities, at the time of his choosing he granted them the perfect idea of generosity toward them.

2The one he raised up to be a light to those who originated from himself, the one from whom they derive their name, he is the full, complete and perfect Son. He produced him mixed with what emerged out of him, [] [. . .] sharing in the glory [. . .] the Totality, congruent with [. . .], by means of which each is [able] to receive it to [himself], although each did not have this greatness before they were received by it. They, instead, exist only partially in his proper mode and form and greatness. [They] are able to see him and speak of [what they] know about him, because they wear each other, because they are able to grasp [him]. By contrast, [his] mode of being is without comparison, so that the Father could receive honor from each one and could reveal himself, despite his incomparability. Concealed and unseen, they wonder at him in mind. The greatness of his exaltedness is consequently manifested when they speak of him and behold him, hymning him for the riches of his sweetness.