First:
One may say:
No reliable evidence—whether scriptural or rational—has established that the Throne is one of the round, spherical celestial orbs.
This was asserted only by a group of later thinkers who studied astronomy and other branches of philosophy. They held that there were nine celestial spheres, and that the ninth—the starless sphere—encompassed the others and was round like them. It imparted eastward motion to them, although each sphere also had its own particular motion besides this common motion. Then they heard mention, in the accounts transmitted from the prophets—may Allah’s blessings and peace be upon them—of Allah’s Throne, His Footstool, and the seven heavens.
They therefore conjectured that the Throne was the ninth sphere, believing that nothing lay beyond the ninth: either nothing whatsoever, or no created thing.
Some of them, holding that the ninth sphere moved all the other spheres, made it the origin of events. They claimed that Allah brings into being within it what He ordains on earth, or brings it into being within the soul they claimed was attached to it, or within the intellect from which they claimed this sphere had emanated. Some of them sometimes called this intellect the Spirit. Others sometimes identified the soul with the Spirit, or identified the soul with the Preserved Tablet, just as they identified the intellect with the Pen.
At other times, they identify the Spirit with the tenth active intellect belonging to the sphere of the moon, the soul attached to it. Sometimes they regard