As for the denier’s statement:

“And because the world is a sphere, nothing is above without also being below in relative terms.”

He may be answered as follows:

This is mistaken, for, as explained earlier, all rational people agree that what encompasses is above the centre. They also agree that the sun, moon, and stars, when in the sky, can only be above the earth. The same applies to clouds and birds in the air.

Moreover, this supposed position below is imaginary and illusory, with no reality to it, and entails no deficiency. For someone suspended by his feet, the sky is below him only in a misguided perception and a false imagining. The same applies to an ant walking beneath a ceiling.

Thus, the sun, moon, and stars coursing through their celestial spheres are below us at night only in a misguided perception and a false imagining.

Furthermore, the world’s being spherical does not preclude our ascribing a distinguishing quality to one of its two sides. Do you not see that, although they say the earth is spherical, the side upon which animals, plants, and minerals are found is nobler than the side submerged in water? If this is the nobler of the earth’s two sides, then nothing prevents what lies in alignment with it from being nobler than what lies in alignment with the other side. Thus, whatever lies above the celestial spheres on this side is nobler than what lies on the other side.

This is further clarified by the fact that the natural tendencies of water and earth, according to those who take them into account, would require water to have submerged the entire earth on this side, just as it has submerged it