existent or nonexistent. “Place” may also refer to something existent, and “spatial locus” to something nonexistent.

It is well known that those who affirm His being above say that He is above His heavens, over His Throne, and separate from His creation. When they say that He is separate from all created things, every place or spatial locus conceived as existent is included among existent things. If He is separate from them, He is not within them. On this understanding, therefore, He is not within any existent place or spatial locus, nor does this entail that any such thing has existed from eternity.

When they say that He is above the Throne, they do not say that the Throne existed with Him from eternity. Rather, the Throne was created after it had not existed. He is neither within the Throne nor dependent upon it; rather, by His power He sustains the Throne and its bearers. How, then, does this entail that the Throne existed with Him from eternity? Indeed, how does it entail that He is within the Throne or dependent upon it? What he has mentioned follows only in the case of one who requires something created to encompass him. This is not the position of those who say that He is separate from all created things.

[The fifth response]

It may be said: His statement, “According to the opponent, it is impossible for the Creator not to be in a spatial locus,” is ambiguous.

If he says that, according to his opponent, He depends on an existent spatial locus, the opponent has not said this, nor is anyone known to have said it. Even if some unknown person has said it, no heed need be paid to him. Muslims have no doubt that Allah Most High is independent of everything other than Himself. How, then, can it be said that He depends on a nonexistent spatial locus? Nonexistence is not a thing such that the Lord could be said to depend on it or not to depend on it.