In this sutta we find:
atha puriso āgaccheyya ghammābhitatto ghammapareto kilanto tasito pipāsito, so taṃ udapānaṃ olokeyya. tassa ‘udakan’ti hi kho ñāṇaṃ assa
Bodhi translates this as:
Then a man would come along, oppressed and afflicted by the heat, tired, parched, and thirsty. He would look down into the well and the knowledge would occur to him, ‘There is water,’ but…
I would like to know the implications of the Pāli here. Does it imply that he has seen, or has not seen, the water? What is the exact nature of his knowledge, strickly from the Pāli in this passage? (Disregarding whatever comes after it).