concerning his doctrinal positions:

First: It is permissible to ask, ‘Where is Allah?’

Second: It is correct to answer, ‘In heaven.’

Third: This matter is referred to the consensus of the learned and the common people.”

I say: Abū Muhammad ibn Kullāb stated that only a few people dissented from the community on this matter—Jahm and a small number with him, who claim to be the best of all people. He also stated that the knowledge that Allah is above is innate, embedded in the natural disposition of His servants, and agreed upon by both their common people and their learned scholars.

Abū Bakr ibn Fūrak said immediately after this: “Know that this does not contradict what he said in The Book of Divine Oneness, for he only says that He is in heaven in adherence to the wording of the Book, where He, Mighty and Majestic, says:

‘Do you feel secure from Him who is in heaven?’ [al-Mulk: 16]

He means that He is above it, and he referred this back to the words of the Most High:

‘The Most Merciful rose over the Throne (5).’ [Tā Hā: 5]

Whoever imagines that he is saying that Allah is in one place rather than another, or in every place, has misunderstood him.”

I reply: As for Ibn Fūrak’s statement that he said this only in adherence to the revealed wording of the Book, that is not so, for he first established this