Full Idea
To be really the same excludes being really other, but does not exclude being other modally or mentally.
Gist of Idea
Identity does not exclude possible or imagined difference
Source
report of Francisco Suárez (Disputationes metaphysicae [1597], 7.65) by Stephen Boulter - Why Medieval Philosophy Matters 4
Book Reference
Boulter,Stephen: 'Why Medieval Philosophy Matters' [Bloomsbury 2019], p.89
A Reaction
So the statue and the clay are identical, but they could become separate, or be imagined as separate.