As for those Muslims who dream that they have ascended to the heavens and that angels converse with them—and similar sights witnessed by ordinary individuals—Quraysh would never have denied such claims, nor would anyone else in creation. Yet no dreamer like this could ever be described as "one of power, securely stationed with the Lord of the Throne, obeyed there and trustworthy."

Some go so far as to assert that Gabriel is the Active Intellect whose effusion overflows, interpreting the phrase "not withholding" to mean "not stingy in his outpouring." This notion is untenable for many reasons.

First, that entity could never assume the figure of a desert Arab, or appear in the likeness of Dihyah, or as the guests of Abraham the Friend—or Lot—or in any human form by which he breathed into Mary.

Second, Allah says of Gabriel: "endowed with power, securely stationed with the Lord of the Throne, obeyed there and trustworthy." The Active Intellect, however, is not obeyed in that realm; at most, according to their own account, it merely sets the lowest heavenly sphere in motion by imitating it, exerting no influence beyond that. They even claim that the Throne is the ninth heaven, whereas elsewhere we have demonstrated at length that the Throne lies above the ninth sphere and is not identical with it.

Furthermore, Allah tells us that the Prophet saw him by the Lote-tree of the Furthest Boundary, and that he saw him on the clear horizon twice. Authentic reports establish that he beheld Gabriel in the form in which he was created on two occasions, seeing him with six hundred wings, two of which filled the space between east and west. Such a description