Meaning: it became straight with it. And among them: turning toward a thing; it is said: So-and-so turned (istawā) upon so-and-so with what he dislikes and displeases him after having been good to him. And among them: taking possession and gaining mastery (1), like their saying: So-and-so established mastery (istawā) over the kingdom. Meaning he took possession of it and acquired it. And among them: elevation and rising, like the speaker's saying: So-and-so elevated (istawā) upon his throne. Meaning by it his elevation upon it.

And the most appropriate of meanings for the statement of God, majestic be His praise: "Then He directed Himself (istawā) to the heaven and fashioned them," is that He elevated over them and rose, then He managed them by His power, and created them as seven heavens.

And it is astonishing of one who denies the understood meaning from the speech of the Arabs in interpreting the statement of God: "Then He directed Himself (istawā) to the heaven," which is in the meaning of elevation and rising, fleeing in his own mind from being bound by his claim—if he interprets it by its understood meaning as such—that He only elevated and rose after having been beneath it—until he interpreted it with the unknown of his reprehensible interpretation. Then he did not escape from what he fled from! For it is said to him: You claimed that the interpretation of His statement "istawā" is "He turned toward"; was He then turned away from the heaven and then turned toward it? If he claims that this is not a turning of physical action, but rather a turning of management, it is said to him: Then likewise say: He elevated over it with an elevation of dominion and authority, not an elevation of transition and movement. Then he will not say anything regarding any of that except that he will be bound by the same in the other. And were it not that we disliked lengthening the book with what is not of its genre, we would have informed of the corruption of the statement of every speaker who said a statement regarding that contradicting the statement of the people of truth therein. And in what we have clarified of it is that which brings one possessing understanding to what is sufficient for him in it, if God the Exalted wills.

Abū Jaʿfar said: And if a speaker were to say to us (2): Inform us about the directing (istiwāʾ) of God, majestic be His praise, to the heaven, was it before the creation of the heaven or after it?

It is said: After it, and before He fashioned them into seven heavens, just as He, majestic be His praise, said: