How did Avicenna influence Scholastic discussions of being, essence, and existence?

Avicenna significantly influenced Scholastic philosophy by introducing a rigorous inquiry into the nature of being, specifically through his distinction between essence and existence.12

Avicenna argued that existence is not inherent to the essence of created things; rather, it must be imparted by an agent-cause. This framework led to his view of the universe as a chain of contingent beings, all ultimately dependent on a necessary being—God—whose essence is identical to his existence.23

Medieval Schoolmen frequently engaged with these ideas, quoting them with both approval and disapproval. St. Thomas Aquinas, in particular, utilized and transformed these concepts to harmonize Aristotelian philosophy with Christian theology. Aquinas adopted the distinction between essence and existence to explain the fundamental difference between God and creatures: while creatures possess a real composition of essence and existence, God is pure being, or the act of existing (esse), in whom essence and existence are one.145