HEIRARCHY OF CREATION (EPISTLES OF THE BRETHREN OF PURITY)

----You must know, dear brother, God aid you and us with His sustaining
spirit, that mineral substance are the lowest things that come to be.
They include all bodies that arise as composites of the four elements:
fire, air, water, and earth. Plants, too, are compounded of these elements.
But nourished by the elements, they can grow, expanding in all three dimensions:
length, width, and depth. Animals share with plants the functions of nourishment
and growth but are distinguished by locomotion and sensitivity. Man share these
traits with plants and animals but adds his own distinctions: reason and discernment.

REF: EPISTLES OF THE BRETHERN OF PURITY
EDITED AND TRANSLATED BY LENN E. GOODMAN AND RICHARD MCGREGOR