591- Mūsā ibn Hārūn narrated to me, he said: ʿAmr ibn Ḥammād narrated to us, he said: Asbāṭ narrated to us, from al-Suddī in a report he mentioned, from Abū Mālik, and from Abū Ṣāliḥ, from Ibn ʿAbbās—and from Murra, from Ibn Masʿūd, and from some of the Companions of the Prophet (Peace and blessings of God be upon him): "It is He who created for you all that is on the earth, then He turned to the heaven and fashioned them into seven heavens." He said: Indeed, Allah—blessed and exalted is He—His Throne was upon the water, and He had not created anything other than what He created before the water. When He willed to create the creation, He brought forth smoke from the water, and it rose above the water and towered over it, so He named it heaven. Then He dried the water and made it a single earth, then He clove it asunder and made seven earths in two days—on Sunday and Monday. So He created the earth upon a fish, and the fish is the Nūn that Allah mentioned in the Qurʾān: "Nūn. By the pen," and the fish is in the water, the water is on the back of a smooth rock, the smooth rock is on the back of an angel, the angel is on a boulder, and the boulder is in the wind—and it is the boulder that Luqmān mentioned—neither in the heaven nor in the earth. The fish moved and stirred, so the earth trembled; thus He set firm mountains upon it so that it settled, for mountains fall upon the earth. That is His statement: (And He has cast firm mountains upon the earth lest it shake with you) (1) [Surah al-Naḥl: 15]. And He created in it its mountains, the sustenance of its inhabitants, its trees, and what is appropriate for it in two days, on Tuesday and Wednesday. That is when He says: (Do you truly disbelieve in Him Who created the earth in two days and set up equals to Him? That is the Lord of the worlds. He placed firm mountains in it above it and blessed it) He says: He brought forth its trees (and determined therein its sustenance) He says: its sustenance for its inhabitants (in four days, equally for those who ask) He says: Say to whoever asks you: Thus is the matter (2) (Then He turned to the heaven while it was smoke) [Surah Fuṣṣilat: 9-11], and that smoke was from the exhalation of the water when it exhaled, so He made it