Adam that the earth is beneath the heavens wherever it is, and that the heavens are above the earth wherever they are. They also agree with people generally that the eastern region, both its heavens and its earth, is not beneath the western region, nor is the western region, both its heavens and its earth, beneath the eastern region. They agree that anyone who considers either region inherently above or below the other is ignorant.

This becomes clear from our earlier explanation that directions are of two kinds: fixed, intrinsic directions that do not change, and relative directions that shift and change. The first kind—the real, fixed, intrinsic directions—are above and below. The heavens are always in the upper direction, whose elevation is fixed and intrinsic, never changing. The higher the region, the more expansive it is; the lower it is, the narrower it becomes. Thus the highest is the widest, and the lowest