Using places to determine times and other places is accepted by Arabs and non-Arabs, adherents of religions and philosophers alike. If the appearance of the Pleiades is used to infer the appearance of nearby stars to their east and west, right and left, this is inference from one particular to another because they are necessarily connected. It is not analogical reasoning. If this is expressed as a universal judgment, it is inference from one universal to another, not from a universal to a particular. Rather, one of two necessarily connected universals is used to infer the other.

Someone who knows the distances between the stars and knows which of them accompany the break of dawn can infer, from the stars he sees, how much of the night has passed and how much remains. This is inference from one of two necessarily connected things to the other. Likewise, someone familiar with mountains, rivers, and winds can use them to infer the places associated with them.

If this connection is permanent, with no known beginning, but has existed since Allah created the earth—as with mountains, the great rivers (the Nile, the Euphrates, Sayhān, and Jayhān), and the sea—then the inference holds consistently.

If the connection has endured for a shorter period, as in the case of the Kaaba—may Allah Most High honour it—then inferences drawn from it apply accordingly. Abraham, Allah’s close friend, built it, and it has remained venerated; no tyrant has ever prevailed over it. Thus, it can be used to infer other things, and other things can be used to infer its location. The corners of the Kaaba face the earth’s four cardinal directions: the Black Stone faces east; the western corner opposite it, also called the Syrian corner, faces west; the Yemeni corner faces south; and the corner opposite it is called the Iraqi corner—if one calls