the descent of human bodies from a rooftop to the ground. This resembles the claim that the Throne becomes vacant of Him, so that some created things are above Him and others below Him. If the descent is conceived in this way, it would be impossible, for the reason they mentioned: He would remain beneath the Throne most or all of the time, since the time difference between the two extremities of the inhabited world is approximately one night.
For it is said that the inhabited world extends from east to west over approximately one hundred and eighty celestial degrees. Every fifteen degrees correspond to one equinoctial hour. An equinoctial hour is one of the twelve hours of night or day when night and day are equal—as they are at the beginning of spring, which the Arabs call summer, and at the beginning of autumn, which they call spring. This differs from the situation in which one is longer than the other, yet each is divided into twelve hours: those hours vary in length. Thus, the sun sets for the people of the east before it sets for the people of the west, just as it rises for the former before the latter, by approximately twelve hours or more.
Wherever the sun reaches its full elevation above the earth, as it does at midday, it illuminates what lies ahead of it and behind it, to the east and west: ninety degrees eastward and ninety degrees westward. Together, these correspond to twelve hours of its motion: six eastward and six westward. This is the daylight period when day and night are equal. The sun always has this daylight period, but its light is obscured because of its inclination toward the north