It has thus become clear that, under every supposition, one may direct oneself toward Allah only upward, while He is upon His Throne, distinct from His creation. Whether it is further supposed that He encompasses created things—as He encompasses them when they are in His grasp—or that He is above them without grasping and encompassing them, He is, on either supposition, above them and distinct from them. It is therefore clear that, on this supposition concerning the Creator and this supposition concerning the Throne, no objectionable consequence or contradiction follows. This dispels every doubt. Such doubts arise only from two false beliefs.

The first is to suppose that, if the Throne is spherical and Allah is above it, Allah must necessarily be spherical; then to believe that, if He is spherical, one may direct oneself toward something spherical—such as the ninth celestial sphere—from every direction. Both beliefs are erroneous and misguided. Although Allah is above the Throne, and even on the view that the Throne is spherical—whether it is the ninth celestial sphere or something else—it is impermissible to suppose that He resembles the celestial spheres in their shapes, just as it is impermissible to suppose that He resembles them in their dimensions or attributes. Glory be to Him! Exalted is He far above what the wrongdoers say!

Rather, it has become clear that He is far too great and mighty for created things, in relation to Him, to be like the contents of a celestial sphere in relation to that sphere. In relation to Him, they are smaller than a chickpea, a peppercorn, or the like in the hand of one of us. If a chickpea or a peppercorn—or even a dirham, a dinar, a ball that children play with, or something similar—is in a person’s hand, beneath him, or in some comparable position, would any rational person, recognizing that the person is above it and encompasses it, imagine that the person must be like a celestial sphere? Allah—and to Allah belongs the highest description—is far too great for such a thing to be supposed of Him. This is imagined of Him only by