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How did Parmenides connect thought with being?

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Marble bust of Aristotle with a beard and draped robe, showing detailed facial features and wavy hair, set against a dark background. — metaphysics Detail of a Roman copy (2nd century bce) of a Greek alabaster portrait bust of Aristotle (c. 325 bce); in the collection of the Museo Nazionale Romano, Rome.

Parmenides connected thought with being through the principle that "the same thing can be thought and can exist." In his philosophy, he asserted that because Not-Being (to mē eon) is absolute nothingness, it can neither be known nor expressed; therefore, to think is to grasp that what is thought must exist as Being.12

This coalescence of reality and intellect forms the foundation of his ontology. Parmenides argued that true knowledge is found only in the "Way of Truth," which rejects all contradictions and assertions of Not-Being. He maintained that language and thought are inseparable from reality: one cannot speak or think of something without affirming its existence as "is." By spurning empirical observation in favor of a strictly logical, abstract approach, he established that the only reality is the all-encompassing, static, and unique unity of Being. Consequently, for Parmenides, any claim of change or multiplicity is merely an illusion of the "Way of Opinion," as true thought is restricted to the noncontradictory nature of what exists.3145