Al-Khallāl said: Muhammad ibn ‘Alī al-Warrāq informed us: Abū Bakr al-Athram narrated to us: Muhammad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Qaysī told me: I said to Ahmad ibn Hanbal, “It is related that Ibn al-Mubārak was asked, ‘How do we know our Lord?’ He replied, ‘In the seventh heaven, over His Throne, with a limit.’” Ahmad said, “That is our position as well.”