 What we told about place of the sphere is that which Abū Bakr Ben al-Ṣā’igh and Abū Naṣr [al-Fārābī] before him, considered, i.e., that its parts are in place essentially, i.e., by means of its center. Place is said by equivocity with regard to the place of the spherical body and to the place of the body [moving] in straight lines. Indeed, it appears [to me] that it is most reasonable to say that the sphere is in place accidentally by means of its center which [the sphere] surrounds because what is in place essentially is surrounded, not surrounding. But that which surrounds matches (maqbil) to that which is surrounded. It may be said that which surrounds is in that which is surrounded. Since the body of the heavens does not have anything surrounding it, it is not in place essentially, but it is in place by means of that surrounded by it, and this is accidentally. (MC Kalonymos L 47rº2–10; O 37vº–38rº)