bear the Throne.” He went on to relate the report, then said: “Know that it is not impossible to understand the report in its apparent sense, and that His heaviness comes from the very essence of the Most Merciful, since this entails nothing impossible regarding His attributes.”

Following his usual approach in such matters, he said: “For we do not affirm heaviness involving contact, pressure, or weight, since these are attributes of bodies, and He is exalted above that. Rather, we affirm this as an attribute of His essence, without contact, just as all agree that He is above things without covering them, even though, in the observable world, being above something entails covering it.”

He said: “It has also been said that an attribute arises anew in Him whereby He weighs heavily upon the Throne, and this ceases in another state, just as the attribute of perception arises anew in Him when perceptible things are created and ceases when they no longer exist. If it is said: ‘This refers to the weight of His greatness and majesty in their hearts, and to what arises anew within them at certain times through