there was nothing but sheer void, and that, if the upper region were distinct from the lower, these regions would have positive existence—they reply that His being above the world becomes apparent only when He creates the world. For when He created it, He already possessed the elevation that belongs to Him by virtue of Himself, and He created the world as being below. He must therefore be above the world by virtue of something in Himself and in the world, not because of anything positively existing in the spatial region—even though, before the creation of the world and above the world, there was nothing but pure nonexistence and sheer void. Thus, according to them, His specific association with a spatial region is due to the impossibility of movement for Him and the necessity of His being above, by virtue of something in Himself and in the world.

Likewise, regarding his statement in the third argument, “If the Divine Essence could necessarily be specifically associated with certain directions, despite all spatial regions being alike, it would follow that they have no need of the Maker,” they reply: “This rests on the assumption that spatial regions are positively existing things. That is not the case; rather, they are absences.”