Scientia potentia est phrase ""sapientia est potentia"" is often translated as "wisdom is power". The earliest documented occurrence of the phrase "Knowledge is power" is from Imam Ali (599-661 CE), as recorded in the tenth-century book Nahj Al-Balagha (originally in Arabic). He said: Another account of this concept is found in the Shahnameh by the Persian poet Ferdowsi (940–1020 CE) who wrote: "Capable is he who is wise" (in Persian: توانا بود هر که دانا بود). This hemistich is translated to English as "knowledge is power" or "One who has wisdom is powerful". A proverb in practically the same wording is found in
Latin influence in English Old English scribes and christened to become the word "bless". Similarly "fullwiht" (literally, "full-being") and the verb "fullian" came to mean "baptism" and "to baptize" respectively, but probably originally referred to some kind of rite of passage. Whenever a suitable Old English substitute could not be found, a Latin word could be chosen instead, and many Latin words entered the Old English lexicon in this way. Such words include: "biscop" "bishop" from Latin "episcopus", Old English "teped" "carpet" from Latin "tapetum", and Old English "sigel" "brooch" from Latin "sigillum". Other words came in, even though an adequate Old English term