25 - Yūsuf informed us, Abū Manṣūr informed us, Abū al-Ḥasan informed us, Abū al-Qāsim informed us, Abū ʿAbd Allāh Ibn Baṭṭa informed us, Abū Ṣāliḥ Muḥammad b. Aḥmad narrated to me, Abū al-Aḥwaṣ Muḥammad b. al-Haytham narrated to us, Muslim b. Ibrāhīm narrated to us, Ḥammād b. Salama narrated to us.

Abū ʿAbd Allāh said: And Jaʿfar al-Qāfulāʾī narrated to us, Muḥammad al-Ṣāghānī narrated to us.

Abū ʿAbd Allāh said: Ibn Makhlad narrated to us, Aḥmad b. Manṣūr al-Ramādī narrated to us, they both said: Yazīd b. Hārūn narrated to us.

Abū ʿAbd Allāh said: And Abū Bakr Aḥmad b. Salmān narrated to us, Abū Jaʿfar b. ʿUthmān al-ʿAbsī narrated to us, my father and my uncle Abū Bakr narrated to me, they both said: Yazīd b. Hārūn narrated to us, Ḥammād b. Salama narrated to us, from Yaʿlā b. ʿAṭāʾ, from Wakīʿ b. Ḥudus, from his uncle Abū Razīn [15/b] al-ʿUqaylī [may God be pleased with him], he said:

I said: O Messenger of God, where was our Lord Almighty before He created His creation?

He said: "Over a cloud, beneath which was air, then He created His Throne over the water."

I say: And in a narration other than this:

He said: I said: O Messenger of God: where was our Lord Almighty before He created the heavens and the earth?

He said: "In a cloud, above which was air, and beneath which was air, then He created His Throne over the water" (1).