In the ancient creation myths, the cosmos was commonly described as having a tripartite structure expressed in various ways as the separation of heaven-earth-netherworld, heaven-earth-heaven, water above-firmament-water below, water-dry land-water or metaphorically as the separation of an oil-water system: oil-interface-water.
The latter was the only bold physical explanation ever provided in all time on how the creation may take place a). This teaching can be traced back far remote in time to a respectable Babylonian king under the name of Enmenduranki as the seventh ruler in the Mesopotamian dynasties reigning before the Flood 1).
Some scholars claimed that En-mendur-anki was the historical character of Enoch. He was believed to become the source of all human knowledge after having learned all the secrets of divination in heaven. The legend tells that while he ascended to heaven he was shown in the middle of divine assembly how to observe oil on water 2).
The show had nothing to do with the secret medicine receipt revelation as many scholars and anthropologists thought and so these ancient teaching remain buried in secret for thousands of years. What Enmenduranki wanted to show us was the daily phenomenon about the natural creation of the interface in the separation process of two immiscible liquids such as oil and water (Figure-1A). This tripartite structure i.e. oil-interface-water resulted from the separation process was the general model adopted by the ancients.
Following that pattern, the narration of Genesis 1.1 about the creation of heavens b) and earth may be interpreted as implicitly narrates about the separation of something i.e. preexisting-heaven c) to generate a tripartite structure of heaven-earth-heaven (Figure-1B). Genesis 1.6 describes the separation of primordial water to generate a cosmic structure of water above-firmament-water below (Figure-1C). Genesis 1.9 describes the separation to create the final universe structure of water-dry land-water (Figure-1D).
Nobody was aware that Genesis implicitly describes a series of separations generating multi-heavens. It may be correlated to the creation of Seven Heavens that Genesis-1 may not explicitly narrate. The existence of these heavens are quoted in some ancient stories and stated explicitly in several verses in the Koran. The Genesis' seven days of creations may also be correlated to the different time dimensions that those Seven Heavens individually possesses.
It is interesting to note that Genesis implicitly shows various phases of the creations' substances d). The first creation (Genesis 1.1) doesn't point out to the specific substance phase separation but it can be interpreted as generating tripartite of air-water-air, the second (Genesis 1.6) water-watery interface-water and the third (Genesis 1.9) water-solid-water, of which the solid (dry land) is the final objective of the creation, the material world where our physical body lives in (Figure 2). This lowest heaven also implicitly expressed in the root of the Genesis' word raqia 3) as a thin solid golf leaf or tin leaf in Sumerian cosmology which indicates the solidity of this lowest material heaven.
The Koran extensively employs the expression "heaven and earth" and "heavens and earth" over 200 times. The pairing of the two terms and their conceptual interrelationship make it practically impossible to mention one without the other. The Koran states explicitly that the heavens and earth existed together in an undifferentiated state before creation.
The basic meaning of the word sama' (heaven) in Arabic is the higher, upper, highest or uppermost in addition to the sky, clouds, and rain. The word ard (earth) is the ground, anything that is low.
When mentioning heaven [or heavens] and earth, the Koran often adds the expression "everything between the two" thus giving the tripartite structure "heaven-everything in between-earth, which is a little bit different from the other tripartite structures. The pair of heaven and earth denotes a specific type of relationship that of giving and receiving, and "everything between the two" refers to the result of the relationship 4).
Notes:
a) Naturally, the dimensions of the cosmos model should be projected to higher dimensional reality. We should think that such a two-dimensional interface represents the space (technically may be called 3-hypersurface or 3-brane) whilst [three-dimensional] oil and water represent parts of the four-dimensional [split] world (technically called 4-spacetime).
b) Some versions use the singular form to this notion as people wrongly think this as the creation of the sky surrounding the planet earth. The heavens and earth here are discussed in the context of the multiverse and used in correlative terms in which heaven is identified with everything high and earth with everything low.
c) The beginning in Genesis 1.1 is not absolute. It is the translation of the Hebrew word “beresith” which is interpreted as a relative beginning. As such there could be pre-existing bodies (heavens) before Genesis beginning. The Genesis creations of heavens and earth could be thought as the continuation of a long series of separations prior to Genesis beginning.
d) The ancients referred to four fundamental substances (pillars) from which grand cosmos was built. We may interpret this as the outcome of successive grand separations of cosmos' elements in descending degree of its dimensions and energy from the hottest substance, fire, into the air, water down to the cold solid (material universe) as depicted in Fig-3A.
The lowest heaven of the Seven heavens resides within the sphere of solid which itself embedded in the water sphere where the higher heavens reside. These two spheres together with the seven heavens inside often called the World of the Kingdom. Beyond is the embedding larger (higher dimensional) sphere of air which itself embedded in the even higher dimensional sphere of fire. These outer spheres are often called The World of the Dominion (Fig. 3B)
References:
1. Barmachi, Faraj: Treasures of the Iraq Museum, Iraq Ministry of Information, Baghdad, 1976.
2. Wright, J.E.: The Early History of Heaven, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2000.
3. Friedman, R.E.: Commentary on the Torah, Harper San Francisco, New York, 2001
4. Murata S.: "The Tao of Islam," State University of New York Press," 1992, p. 119
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