Primary questions of metaphysics
"Metaphysics concerned with the ultimate nature of reality. It deals with questions like: ‘What is there?’, ‘What is its nature?’, and ‘What is it like?’"
General account of the fundamental character of reality
"The question ‘What is there?’ is not intended to invite as answer an inventory of things – the table, my hand, and so on – but rather a general account of the fundamental character of reality."
Next questions
"Being able to say what exists involves being able to say something about the nature of existence. What is it for something to exist? How are we to understand assertions and denials of existence – ‘Quarks exists’, ‘Unicorns do not exist?’"
Branches
"Metaphysical questions are indeed so numerous and important that discussions of some of them constitute branches of philosophy in their own right, for example the philosophy of mind and philosophical theology. But metaphysical questions about the existence and nature of given kinds of thing arise in almost all philosophical debates.
Ontology is a branch of metaphysics. Ontology is the study of what exists. Questions of ontology: ‘Does God Exist?’, ‘Do possibilities exist?’, and ‘Do physical objects exist?’"
SOURCES
Philosophy 1. A Guide through the Subject. Ed. by A.C. Grayling. Oxford University Press. 2012
Talbot, M. Metaphysics and Epistemology. https://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/metaphysics-and-epistemology