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Among the matters that believers must affirm is that the True One, glorified be He, descends to the lowest heaven every night and descends on the Day of Arafah, without specifying how, positing an equal, setting bounds, or drawing any likeness.

He said: “This is our imam’s explicit statement.”

Yūsuf ibn Mūsā said: “I asked Abū Abd Allāh: ‘Does Allah descend to the lowest heaven however He wills, without description?’ He replied: ‘Yes.’”

On the question of rising over the Throne, he said, as Hanbal reported from him: “Our Lord is upon the Throne, without limit or description.”

In al-Marwadhī’s report, he was asked concerning Ibn al-Mubārak: “Is Allah known to be upon the Throne with a limit?” He replied: “That has reached me,” and he approved of it.

Then Abū Abd Allāh said:

“Are they waiting for anything but that Allah should come to them in canopies of clouds?”

He also said:

“And your Lord comes, and the angels, rank upon rank.”

Ibn Hāmid said: “The school’s position, as we have explained, admits of no disagreement: His Essence descends. I have seen some of our companions report that Abū Abd Allāh said concerning His coming: ‘He comes in His Essence.’”

He said: “This amounts to supposition on the part of the person saying it, and attributing it to him is an error, as is clear from the explicit statement we have established from him.”

Ibn Hāmid said: “Once this principle has been established concerning the descent of His Essence, without description or limit,