who used to keep company with Jahm. She came to Kufa, and I believe the smallest crowd I saw gathered around her numbered ten thousand people; she would summon people to her door.

She was told, ‘There is a man here who has engaged in rational inquiry, called Abū Hanīfah.’ So she went to him and said, ‘You are the one who teaches people religious matters, yet you have abandoned your religion. Where is your God whom you worship?’

He remained silent and gave her no answer for seven days. Then he came out to us, having written a book stating that Allah is in heaven, not on earth.

A man asked him, ‘What, then, of Allah’s words:

“And He is with you” [al-Hadīd: 4]?’

He replied, ‘It is like a man writing to another, “I am with you,” although he is absent from him.’”

And “Abū Mutīʿ al-Hakam ibn ʿAbd Allah al-Balkhī” related in “al-Fiqh