I asked, "Messenger of Allah, where was our Lord, Mighty and Majestic, before He created His creation?"He replied, "He was in a cloud, with no air below it and no air above it. Then He created His Throne upon the water."
قلت: يا رسول الله، أين كان ربنا عزوجل قبل أن يخلق خلقه؟ قال: كان في عماء، ما تحته هواء، وما فوقه هواء، ثم خلق عرشه على الماء.
Tirmidhi (3109) and Ibn Majah (182) both narrated it from the hadith of Yazid bin Harun, who said, Hammad bin Salama informed us, from Yaala bin Ata, from Waki bin Hudus, from his uncle Abu Razeen, and he related it. Imam Ahmad (16188) also narrated it by this route. Ibn Khuzayma (360) and Ibn Habban (6141) graded it sahih, and both narrated it by this same route. Waki bin Hudus is "acceptable," and his narration has corroborating support. See the detailed takhrij in the chapter on the believers seeing their Lord on the Day of Resurrection.As for his saying "amaa" (with a fatha and a long vowel), it means that creation does not know their Creator in terms of His essence, because He existed in amaa before He created time and place, with nothing alongside Him. So creation's knowledge of Him is, so to speak, in a state of amaa with respect to what creation can know, not that Allah Himself was in amaa, since such a description would resemble the attributes of created beings. This is what Ibn Habban said.