πατηρ εν απορρητοις.
Hegesippus (De Bello Judaico, iii. 2), Abdias (Hist., i, towards the end), and Maximus Taurinensis (Patr. VI. Synodi ad Imp. Constant., Act. 18), say that Simon flew like Icarus; whereas in Arnobius (Contra Gentes, ii) and the Arabic Preface to Council of Nicæa there is talk of a chariot of fire, or a car that he had constructed.
Cotelerius in a note (i. 347, 348) refers the reader to the passages in the Recognitions and in Jerome's Commentary on Matthew, which I have already quoted. He also says that the author of the book, De Divinis Nominibus (C. 6), speaks of "the controversial sentences of Simon" (Σιμωνος αντιρρητικοι λογοι). The author is the Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, and I shall quote later on some of these sentences, though from a very uncertain source. Cotelerius also refers to the Arabic Preface to the Nicaean Council. The text referred to will be found in the Latin translation of Abrahamus Echellensis, given in Labbé's Concilia (Sacrorum Conciliorum Nova Collectio, edd. Phil. Labbæus et Gabr. Cossartius, S.J., Florentiæ, 1759, Tom. ii, p. 1057, col. 1), and runs as follows:
"Those traitors (the Simonians) fabricated for themselves a gospel, which they divided into four books, and called it the 'Book of the Four Angles and Points of the World.' All pursue magic zealously, and defend it, wearing red and rose-coloured threads round the neck in sign of a compact and treaty entered into with the devil their seducer."
As to the books of the followers of Cleobius we have no further information.