It is established in the two Sahīh collections, on the authority of ‘Ā’ishah, may Allah be pleased with her, that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, “saw Gabriel in the form in which he was created only twice.” This means the first occasion on the highest horizon and the other descent by the lote tree of the utmost boundary.

Elsewhere, Allah describes Gabriel, peace be upon him, as the Trustworthy Spirit and the Holy Spirit, among other attributes which make clear that he is among the greatest of Allah Most High’s living, intelligent creatures, and that he is a substance subsisting in his own right—not an image in the Prophet’s mind, as claimed by these heretical philosophers and those who claim to be friends of Allah and more knowledgeable than the prophets.

Ultimately, their position amounts to denying the “foundations of faith”: belief in Allah, His angels, His Books, His messengers, and the Last Day. In reality, their position is a denial of the Creator, for they have identified the existence of creation with the existence of the Creator, saying, “Existence is one.” They have failed to distinguish between numerical unity and unity of kind. Existing things share in what is denoted by existence, just as human beings share in what is denoted by humanity, and animals in what is denoted by animal. Yet this shared universal exists as a shared universal only in the mind. In actual reality, the animal nature subsisting in this human being is not the animal nature subsisting in a horse, and the existence of the heavens is not the very same existence as that of a human being. Thus, the existence of the Creator—majestic is His glory—is not like the existence of His creatures.