Behold and listen: So the earth had come into existence, and there were the moon, the sun, and the stars; but the earth was still bare, and its surface was still like the surface of the sea. Dense clouds were hovering above the waters, extending deep into the dead spaces of the worlds, and the light of the sun was unable to illumine the drop of mercy. The moon was covered by the vapor of the drop, and only in this vapor was the earth born and the moon nourished. And, like a hen sitting on her chicks, the sun was above both of them with the rays of its light from the warmth of the love in God, maturing the earth and separating the moon from the breast of his mother. – The Household of God, Book 1, Chapter 7, Paragraph 2