The earth's sphericity

Al-Masudi relates from the astronomers that the heaven is like a sphere that turns with its stars. ¹

They say that the earth is a sphere fixed at the centre of the heaven, like a centre point. Its size, compared with the heaven, is like the size of a point in a circle. It lies within the sphere of the heavens like a speck in an egg. They say that it draws the weight in bodies, as a magnet draws iron. ¹

The earth, in their view, is divided into two halves by the equator. Its circumference at the equator is nine thousand leagues, in three hundred and sixty degrees, each degree being twenty-five leagues. Between the equator and each pole there are ninety degrees. ¹

This is a transmission from the astronomers as al-Masudi relates it, and not a judgement on it.