“Until it is said to it: ‘Rise up, return to where you came from.’ So it returns and becomes a riser from its point of emergence; then it travels until it reaches its resting place under the Throne, where it prostrates, and remains so until it is again told: ‘Rise up, return to where you came from.’ It returns, rises again from its point of emergence, and travels—without anyone finding fault with it—until it reaches its resting place under the Throne. Then it is commanded: ‘Rise up; this morning, emerge from your west.’ So it rises from its western point. The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: “Do you know what that means? That will be when faith will not benefit anyone who had not believed earlier, nor gained any good in his faith.” (Sahih Muslim 1:138) This hadith explicitly affirms that the sun’s resting place is beneath the Throne. Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyya (may Allah have mercy on him) says: “If the Prophet (ﷺ) has informed us that it prostrates under the Throne, then he has taught us the variation of its states by night and day, even though its course in its orbit is of a single kind, and its being under the Throne is unchanging in itself. The variation is one of relation and attribution. He knew that the diversity of relations and attributions does not detract from what is fixed in itself and does not vary.” (Bayan Talbis al-Jahmiyyah, vol. 2, p. 228) Shaykh Abdullah al-Ghunaym explains Ibn Taymiyya’s meaning by saying that this variation is only in respect to those on earth. He states: “The variation in its course is relative to those on earth: it rises for some and sets for others, although its orbit itself does not vary. Thus its prostration does not change with day and night; that change is only relative to people on earth. In itself, it prostrates at a fixed point in its course and at a fixed moment, without variation.” (Sharh Kitab al-Tawhid, vol. 1, p. 412) Ibn Taymiyya (may Allah have mercy on him) continues: “From this we can answer what Ibn Hazm and others have said about the Ḥadith of the Descent (Nuzūl), where they argued: ‘Night differs for people—its beginning, its half, and its third occur in the east before dawn, the half, and the third in the west.’ They said that if the Divine Descent were the literal descent known, He would have to descend at every part of the night, since night remains on earth; or else He would be continually descending and ascending, a contradiction. They only said this because they imagined Divine Descent in terms of human descent—this is pure anthropomorphism. They even likened Him to a helpless human who cannot combine actions that others can’t. Yet authentic reports say that He will question His creatures on the Day of Resurrection—each will see Him devoted solely to him and will converse with Him without perceiving any division or delegation." (Bayan Talbis al-Jahmiyyah, vol. 2, p. 228) See also the extended treatment of this topic in Sharḥ Ḥadīth al-Nuzūl, pp. 109 ff.