This same al-Qurtubī also said in his extensive Quran commentary, concerning the words of the Exalted:

“Then He rose over the Throne.” [Yūnus 3]

“This is the question of rising over the Throne, concerning which scholars have offered discussions and written treatises. We have explained their views in our book al-Asnā fī Sharh Asmā’ Allāh al-Husnā wa-Sifātihi al-‘Ulā (An Explanation of Allah’s Most Beautiful Names and Loftiest Attributes), where we mentioned fourteen views.”

He said: “Most earlier and later scholars hold that, if the Creator must be declared free of direction and of occupying space, then a necessary consequence and inescapable implication of this, according to the general body of earlier scholars and their leading successors, is that the Creator must be declared free of direction. Thus, in their view, He is not in the direction above, because they hold that being particular to a direction necessarily means being in a place or a region of space. Being in a place or a region of space entails motion and rest, and this