Some of them said: The heaven, even if it is a heaven above a heaven and an earth above an earth, it is singular in interpretation if you wish, then that singular becomes a plural, as it is said: "a worn-out (akhlāq, pl.) and tattered (asmāl, pl.) garment (thawb, sing.)," and "a cooking pot (burma, sing.) in pieces (aʿshār, pl.)," for a broken one, and "a cooking pot in fragments (aksār, pl.) and pieces (ajbār, pl.)." And "worn-out" (akhlāq) means that its parts are worn out (1).

So if a questioner says to us: You have said that God, majestic be His praise, directed Himself to the heaven while it was smoke before He fashioned it into seven heavens, then He fashioned it into seven after His directing Himself to it, so how did you claim that it is a plural?

It is said: They were seven, unfashioned, so for that reason He, majestic be His mention, said: "and fashioned them into seven." Just as:-

590- Muhammad b. Humayd narrated to me, he said: Salama b. al-Fadl narrated to us, he said: Muhammad b. Ishaq said: The first of what God, blessed and exalted is He, created was light and darkness, then He distinguished between them, so He made the darkness a black, dark night, and He made the light a shining, illuminating day. Then He raised the canopy of the seven heavens from smoke — it is said, and God knows best, from the smoke of the water — until they settled, but He did not weave them firmly (2). And He had darkened the night of the lowest heaven, and brought forth its morning light, so the night and the day flowed in it, while there was no sun, moon, or stars in it. Then He spread out the earth and anchored it with the mountains, and determined its sustenance therein, and scattered in it whatever He willed of creation, so He finished with the earth and what He determined in it of its sustenance in four days. Then He directed Himself to the heaven while it was smoke — as He said — so He wove them firmly, and placed in the lowest heaven its sun, its moon, and its stars, and revealed in each heaven its command, and so He completed