At length he said:
“This is among the gravest forms of whispering about monotheism: sowing doubts concerning it; and about the Lord’s attributes, either by likening them to created things and drawing anthropomorphic parallels, or by denying and nullifying them. He introduces criteria for the majesty of the Lord commensurate with human intellects—so they perish if they accept them, and the pillars of their faith are shaken if they do not turn to knowledge and sound understanding.

He is the One—exalted be He—who proclaimed, ‘I am Allah,’ not the tree; the One who will come, before any coming of His command; the One who rose over His Throne in the magnificence of His majesty, above every place. He spoke to Moses directly and showed him some of His mighty signs,¹ so Moses heard the speech of Allah. ‘Both His hands are outspread,’ and they are other than His bounty or His power; and He created Adam with His two hands.”

ʿAmr was a contemporary of al-Junayd, highly esteemed; he died shortly before 300 AH, or around that time.

113 – Thaʿlab², the foremost authority in Arabic (d. 291 AH).

280 – Ḥāfiẓ Abū al-Qāsim al-Lālikāʾī said in his book al-Sunnah: “I found, in the handwriting of al-Dāraqutnī, a report from Isḥāq al-Kādhī who said: I heard Abū al-ʿAbbās Thaʿlab say:

‘istawā: he turned toward something even when it was not crooked. “Then He istawā toward the heaven” means: He turned toward it. “He istawā over the Throne” means: He ascended. “The moon istawā” means: it became full. “Zayd and ʿAmr istawā” means: they became equal in their actions even if their persons differ. This is what is known in the speech of the Arabs.’

Abū al-ʿAbbās was among the great scholars of the Arabic tongue; he authored numerous works and his name became renowned. He died in 291 AH.