There is no inconsistency among these descriptions, for all of them could have occurred at the same moment.
We have already cited the Prophet’s words, peace and blessings be upon him:
“Then I was taken up to the Lote Tree of the Utmost Boundary, and I saw that its fruit was like great jars.”
In another wording:
“Like the large water-jars of Hajar; its leaves were like the ears of elephants, and at its root were two hidden rivers and two visible ones. The hidden rivers are in Paradise, while the visible ones are the Nile and the Euphrates.”
We dealt with this earlier when speaking about the creation of the earth and the seas and rivers it contains.
The ḥadīth continues:
“Then the Frequented House (al-Bayt al-Maʿmūr) was raised before me. Every day seventy thousand angels enter it, never to return to it again.”
He also related that he found Abraham, the Close Friend—upon him be peace—reclining with his back against the Frequented House.
We have explained the relevance of this: the Frequented House in the seventh heaven occupies, above, the same position that the Kaʿbah holds on earth.
Sufyān al-Thawrī, Shuʿbah, and Abū l-Aḥwaṣ have narrated—on the authority of Simāk ibn Ḥarb, from Khālid ibn ʿArʿarah—that Ibn al-Kawwāʾ asked ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib about the Frequented House. He replied:
“It is a mosque in heaven called al-Ḍurāḥ. It lies directly above the Kaʿbah, and its sanctity in heaven is equal to the sanctity of the House on earth. Every day seventy thousand angels pray in it and never return.”
ʿAlī ibn Rabīʿah and Abū l-Ṭufayl transmitted the same from ʿAlī.
Al-Ṭabarānī reports—with his chain of transmission from Ibn ʿAbbās—that the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said:
“The Frequented House in heaven is called al-Ḍurāḥ. It corresponds exactly to the Sacred House, directly above it; were it to fall, it would fall upon it. Every day seventy thousand angels enter it, never to see it again. In the heavens it possesses a sanctity equal to the sanctity of Mecca”—that is, on earth.