created things, as will be documented later in this book from a number of leading scholars.
If, however, by “direction” one means a sheer negation—namely, that which lies beyond the universe—then nothing is there except Allah alone.
This latter sense is what those who affirm divine exaltedness intend when they transmit from the early generations the expression “direction” for Allah, as al-Qurtubi relates from them toward the end of this book.
Ibn Rushd says in al-Kashf ʿan Manāhij al-Adillah (p. 66):

“Concerning the matter of direction: From the very beginning the people of the Sharia have always affirmed this attribute for Allah, until the Muʿtazilah denied it. Later, the later-day Ashʿarīs—such as Abu al-Maʿali and those who followed his lead—joined them in that denial. Yet all the plain texts of the Sharia require affirming a direction, as in His saying, Exalted is He—” (he then cited a number of well-known verses and continued) “—and other verses besides. If one subjects these to allegorical interpretation, the entire Sharia becomes open to reinterpretation; and if one claims they belong to the ambiguous texts, then the whole of revelation becomes ambiguous. For all the revealed laws agree that Allah is in the heaven, and that from Him the angels descend with revelation to the prophets…”