إِنَّ الْكَلَامَ لَفِي الْفُؤَادِ
Speech is in the heart.
This brief poetic expression illustrates that a person can possess an intelligible intended meaning before producing sounds. Language is then used to express it. Likewise, “I have something in mind” does not refer merely to audible sounds leaving the throat.
The analogy has limits: a human inner thought is itself temporal, whereas the eternality of divine speech is a distinct theological claim. The point here is only that the word “speech” need not be reduced in every usage to sound.