al-Ash‘arī—and Qādī ‘Abd al-Wahhāb also reported this from him, meaning Qādī Abū Bakr:

He, glorified be He, has risen over the Throne in His very essence. In some passages, they used the expression “above His Throne.” Imam Abū Bakr said: “This is the correct position, which I affirm, without delimitation, settlement in a place, presence within it, or contact.”

Shaykh Abū ‘Abd Allāh said:

This is the position of Qādī Abū Bakr in his book Tamhīd al-Awā’il (Introduction to First Principles). The learned Abū Bakr ibn Fūrak also stated it in his Sharh Awā’il al-Adillah (Commentary on the First Proofs). It is likewise the position of Abū ‘Umar ibn ‘Abd al-Barr, al-Talamankī, and other Andalusian scholars, and of al-Khattābī in Shi‘ār al-Dīn (The Emblem of Religion).

Then, after relating fourteen positions, he said:

“The clearest position is that supported by the converging testimony of the verses, the reports, and the virtuous and righteous scholars: Allah is over His Throne, as He has informed us in His Book and through His Prophet, without specifying how, and is distinct from all His creation. This is the position of the righteous early generations, as trustworthy authorities have transmitted from them.”

All of this is his exact wording.

Shaykh Abū Nasr al-Sijzī said in his book al-Ibānah (The Elucidation):

“Our imams—such as Sufyān al-Thawrī, Mālik ibn Anas, Sufyān ibn ‘Uyaynah, Hammād ibn Salamah, Hammād ibn Zayd, ‘Abd Allāh ibn al-Mubārak, Fudayl ibn ‘Iyād, Ahmad ibn Hanbal, and Ishāq ibn Rāhawayh—agree that Allah, glorified be He, is above the Throne in His very essence; that His knowledge encompasses every place; that on the Day of Resurrection He will be seen with the eyes while He is above the Throne; that He descends to the lowest heaven; and that He becomes angry, is pleased, and speaks whatever He wills. Whoever opposes any of this is disassociated from them, and they are disassociated from him.”