Empyrean

thumb|right|upright=1.4|The Paradiso (Dante)#The Empyrean|Divine Comedys Empyrean, illustrated by [[Gustave Doré]]

In ancient European cosmologies inspired by Aristotle, the Empyrean heaven, Empyreal or simply the Empyrean, was the place in the highest heaven which was supposed to be occupied by the element of fire (or aether in Aristotle's natural philosophy). Later early and medieval Christian cosmology incorporated the concept in descriptions of the Christian notion of heaven.