that He descends to the lowest heaven and then rises; another reported wording is, “then He ascends.” He—glory be to Him—has always been above the Throne, for His ascent is of the same kind as His descent. If nothing among created things comes to be above Him when He descends, then He—glory be to Him—ascends even though none of them is above Him.

As for His words:

“Then He rose to heaven,”

they explained this as meaning that He rose because He had said beforehand:

“Do you indeed disbelieve in the One who created the earth in two days, and set up equals to Him? That is the Lord of all worlds.”

“He placed firm mountains upon it, blessed it, and apportioned its sustenance in four days, equally for all who ask.”

“Then He rose to heaven while it was smoke, and said to it and to the earth, ‘Come, willingly or unwillingly.’ They both said, ‘We come willingly.’”

“So He formed them into seven heavens in two days.”

This was revealed in Surah (Hā Mīm) in Mecca. Then Allah revealed Surah al-Baqarah in Medina:

“How can you disbelieve in Allah when you were lifeless and He gave you life? Then He will cause you to die, then bring you to life, and then to Him you will be returned.”

“He is the One who created for you everything on earth, then rose to heaven and fashioned them into seven heavens. And He has knowledge of all things.”

Since He stated that His rising to heaven occurred after He had created the earth and everything in it, this conveyed the meaning of ascent: heaven is above the earth, so rising to it means ascending to it.

If it is asked: Since He rose over the Throne only after creating the heavens and the earth in six days, does that mean He was not over the Throne before that?

The reply is: Rising over is a particular kind of elevation. Everything that has risen over something is above it, but not everything above something has risen over it. Hence, not everything above something else is said to rise over it or to have risen over it.