Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): Abu Bakr al-Hadrami narrated from Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik went to Hajj together with al-Abrash al-Kalbi, and the two of them met Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him) in the Sacred Mosque. Hisham said to al-Abrash, "Do you know this man?" He said, "No." He said, "This is the one whom the Shia, because of the abundance of his knowledge, consider to be a prophet." Al-Abrash said, "I will certainly ask him a question that only a prophet or the successor of a prophet can answer." Hisham said to al-Abrash, "I would like you to do that." So al-Abrash went to Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him) and said to him, "O Aba Abdillah (peace be upon him)! Inform me about this word of Allah the Mighty and Majestic: 'Do the disbelievers not see that the heavens and the earth were joined together, and We separated them from each other.' (al-Anbiya/30). What was their being joined and what was their being separated?" Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him) said, "O Abrash, it is as Allah has described Himself: His Throne was upon the water (Hud/7), and the water was upon the air, and the air had no limit or boundary, and on that day there was nothing other than those two, and the water on that day was sweet and pleasant. When Allah willed to create the earth, He commanded the wind, and it struck the water and raised waves and produced foam, and it joined together and became one, and He gathered it in the place of the House of the Ka'bah and made from the foam a mountain, and He spread the earth out from beneath it. This is what Allah said: 'Indeed, the first House [of worship] established for mankind is the one at Makkah, blessed.' (Aal Imran/96). Then Allah the Exalted paused for as long as He willed, and when He willed to create the heaven, He commanded the wind, and it blew upon the sea and caused it to foam, and from the midst of that wave and foam a scattered smoke arose, without fire, and He created the heaven from it, and made in it the constellations and stars and the stations of the sun and the moon, and set them running in the celestial sphere. The heaven was green, the color of the sweet green water, and the earth too was green, the color of the water, and both were closed and had no doors, and the earth was closed and had no doors — which are the plants — and the sky did not rain upon it so that plants might grow. So He opened the heaven with rain, and opened the earth with plants. This is the meaning of the word of Allah the Mighty and Majestic: 'Do the disbelievers not see that the heavens and the earth were joined together, and We separated them from each other.' (al-Anbiya/30)." Al-Abrash said, "By Allah, no one has ever told me a hadith like this — repeat it for me," and he repeated it. Al-Abrash was a heretic, and he said three times, "I bear witness that you are the son of a prophet."