type of attribute and of the Lord’s rising over the Throne accords with Abū al-Hasan’s own position. This is their position on the attributes known through revelation that are mentioned in connection with these actions.

As for the Lord Himself being high above the universe, Ibn Kullāb holds that this is known through reason, as do most of those who affirm the divine attributes, as al-Khattābī, Ibn ‘Abd al-Barr, and others have mentioned.

This is also Ibn al-Zāghūnī’s position and the later of Judge Abū Ya‘lā’s two positions. Initially, the judge followed al-Ash‘arī’s view that this was an attribute known through revelation. This is also the position of Judge Abū Bakr, al-Bayhaqī, and others like them.

As for Abū al-Ma‘ālī al-Juwaynī and his followers, they differed from al-Ash‘arī and his early followers concerning the attributes known through revelation and did not affirm them. Some, however, denied them, interpreting rising over the Throne as exercising dominion over it. This was the earlier of Abū al-Ma‘ālī’s two positions. Others, such as al-Rāzī and al-Āmidī, suspended judgment, neither affirming nor denying them.

Abū al-Ma‘ālī’s later position was that figurative interpretation of the attributes known through revelation was forbidden. He stated that this was the consensus of the early generations, and that, had figurative interpretation been permissible or obligatory, they would have devoted greater attention to it than to other matters. He therefore cited their consensus as evidence that figurative interpretation is impermissible, and held that the complete pause in recitation should be made at