entails that rank, dominion, elevation, and knowledge are more perfect than the one who exercises dominion, possesses knowledge, and is high and exalted in rank. Whatever may be termed a direction is either nonexistent, in which case it has no eminence whatsoever, or is presumed to exist—either as an attribute of Allah or as something created by Allah. On either supposition, the possessor of an attribute is more perfect than the attribute, and the Creator is more perfect than the created thing. How, then, could attributes and created things be more perfect than the Creator who possesses those attributes—glorified and exalted is He?!

[The fifth argument]

Direction may denote a relationship of one thing to another, as in right and left, front and back. If elevation is called a direction in this sense, then being “high by virtue of direction” means that there is a relationship between the one who is high and that over which he is high, whereby the former is above the latter. Can it then be said that this relationship, by virtue of which the one who is high is described as high, is more perfect than his own elevated essence, which is described by this elevation and relationship?

[The sixth argument]

It may be said: What he has stated applies only to a created being who rises onto a roof, pulpit, throne, chair, or the like. That place was already high in itself, whereas this person became high when he came to be above it, owing to its elevation. Thus, elevation belongs intrinsically to that roof, couch, or pulpit, and incidentally to the person who climbed onto it.

Their argument applies to cases like this. With regard to Allah, however, this is an illusion and a false imagining, an assimilation of Allah to His creation and a likening of Him to them in attributes of deficiency from which He is far exalted.