For this reason, Ibn ‘Arabī said:

“Among His Most Beautiful Names is ‘the Most High.’ Above whom is He high, when none exists but Him? Above what is He high, when nothing exists but Him? His highness therefore belongs to Him intrinsically, and in terms of existence He is identical with existing things. Thus, what are called originated things are themselves intrinsically high, and they are none other than He.”

Then he said:

“Al-Kharrāz said—he being one of the faces of the Real and one of His tongues, speaking of himself—that Allah is known through His uniting opposites. He is the very thing that is manifest, and He is the very thing that is hidden even while He is manifest. There is no one you see other than Him, and there is no one from whom He is hidden other than Himself. He is therefore manifest to Himself and hidden from Himself, and He is the one named ‘Abū Sa‘īd al-Kharrāz.’”

“Being with” does not imply intermingling or mixing, nor does the expression “nearness.” The advocates of indwelling hold that He is within the jugular vein, just as, in their view, He is within all other entities. All of this is disbelief and ignorance of the Quran.

The third group consists of those who say: “He is above the Throne, and He is everywhere.” Such a person says: “I affirm both sets of texts and do not divert any of them from their apparent meaning.” This is the position of several groups mentioned by al-Ash‘arī in al-Maqālāt al-Islāmiyyah (Islamic Doctrines), and it appears in the statements of some of the Sālimiyyah and Sufis. Something similar appears in the statements of Abū Tālib al-Makkī, Ibn Barrajān, and others, despite the contradictions in much of what these two say. In this connection, Abū ‘Alī al-Ahwāzī—who wrote The Faults of Ibn Abī Bishr and refuted Abū al-Qāsim ibn ‘Asākir—belonged to the Sālimiyyah. Likewise, al-Khatīb al-Baghdādī mentioned that a number of people criticized Abū Tālib for his statements concerning the divine attributes.