and governance. In your view, Allah possesses superiority only in this sense, and this meaning holds whether He creates something else above Himself or not. Since this is not impossible according to your own principles, you cannot validly invoke its impossibility against an opponent who disputes this question with you. Indeed, he may say to you: “If this is the only consideration that would rule out that possibility, then you must affirm it, since you yourself do not regard this as an obstacle.”

The second argument is as follows: You have mentioned that, among the Karrāmiyyah who say that He is above the Throne, some say that He is in contact with the Throne, others say that He is separate from it by a finite distance, and still others say that He is separate from it by an infinite distance. This last view entails that there is an infinite distance between Allah and the Throne.

In al-Maqālāt, al-Ash'arī mentioned the position of certain groups who say that His essence has no limit, while also saying that He extends in the various directions. After mentioning the positions of the Mu'tazilah, he said: “This is an account of people’s differing views concerning corporealism.” He said: “We have reported that those who reject corporealism say that