valid unless the One so described were a body. Hence, if we affirm His exaltedness above creation, this would require that He be a body; and once we concede that, since all bodies are alike, anthropomorphism (tashbih) necessarily follows.

For this reason you will see them branding anyone who affirms divine exaltedness and similar attributes a mushabbih (anthropomorphist), while they do not apply that label to those who affirm hearing, sight, speech, and the like—exactly as the author of al-Irshad and others say.

Judge Abu Yaʿla and some other scholars who affirm both the attributes and exaltedness occasionally agree with them in claiming that all bodies are identical; however, they classify exaltedness as a “reported attribute” (sifah khabariyyah), which is the first of the two opinions transmitted from Abu Yaʿla, so that