But if each land has a third of the night distinct from the others, and the beginning in each land follows the other third by a reckoned interval, then likewise the third of the night in an eastern land ends before the third of the night in a western land ends. Moreover, even if these periods overlap, the descent over each land must continue throughout its people’s third of the night until their dawn breaks. This necessarily entails reckoning as many thirds as there are lands.
Furthermore, just as the third of the night varies with a land’s longitude, it also varies with its latitude. The farther north a land lies, the longer its nights are in winter and the shorter they are in summer. A land near the equator has shorter winter nights and longer summer nights than that northern land, so its nights and days are more nearly equal. Accordingly, the divine descent to each people lasts for the duration of their third of the night. Its duration thus varies according to the length of the night in the north and south, just as it varies in the east and west.
Moreover, when the final third of the night begins for one people, a moment later it begins in lands near them. Thus, the divine descent reported by the truthful Prophet whose truth is confirmed also takes place for those people when a third of their night remains, and so on to the farthest reaches of the inhabited world.
If, then, it were as the ignorant person imagines—that He is beneath the Throne, with a heaven above Him and a heaven beneath Him—this would be impossible in many respects.