“A tradition of seven heavens and seven earths was popular in the Near East during the later part of the first millennium B.C.E. and the first millennium C.E.,” writes Wayne Horowitz (Mesopotamian Cosmic Geography, 217).

He elaborates: “Surviving Hebrew and Arabic texts from this time present cosmographies in which seven heavens and earths are explained in detail. For example, the Hebrew Book of Enoch speaks of seven superimposed heavens belonging to the seven archangels. In Enoch, these heavens rise above the spheres of the sun, moon, stars, and planets. The Koran similarly speaks of seven heavens in Sura 65 verse 12 and Sura 78 verse 12.”

Horowitz examines some Sumerian and Akkadian texts and points the ambiguity of the number 7, which sometimes means “all, entirety.” Thus,  “it is possible that ‘seven heavens, seven earths’ in the Sumerian incantations . . . could refer to an unspecified number of heavens and earths that comprise the entire universe or refer to heaven and earth in their entireties” (218-9). In one text, seven gods of heaven and seven gods of earth are listed alongside seven “evil gods” and seven “evil demons” and seven “evil infectious demons” (219).

He concludes that “it is possible that a Sumerian tradition of seven heavens and earths may be a source for the later traditions of seven heavens and earths, although such a tradition is never expressed in surviving Akkadian materials.”

The more common cosmology has two or three levels: “In Enuma Elish, there are at least three heavens: the heaven that belongs to Anu, the Esarra of Enlil, and the level of the stars.” Elsewhere, “the heavens can be divided into two regions only: (1) the sky and (2) the region above the sky” (244).