He also mentioned in the biographical entry on Sufyān ibn Sa‘īd al-Thawrī that he was asked about the words of the Most High:

“And He is with you wherever you are.” [al-Hadīd 4]

He replied, “His knowledge.” He then stated in the course of the entry:

If it is asked: “You have prohibited interpretation and counted it among falsehoods. What, then, do you say about the interpretations of the early generations, and how are they justified? Examples include what is narrated from Ibn ‘Abbās concerning the meaning of ‘rose above,’ namely, ‘settled,’ and what you have narrated from Sufyān concerning the words of the Most High, ‘And He is with you,’ that he said, ‘His knowledge’?”

The answer: We say, “For two reasons, and no third.” However, the answer to the question is to say: If the early authority in question was a Companion, his interpretation is accepted