The balance: the weighing of deeds and manifestation of their worth.
The record: the preservation and presentation of obedience and wrongdoing.
Questioning: the confrontation of persons with their responsibility for what they did.
None should be confined to one ordinary worldly analogy. The full modality of weighing may remain unknown; the disclosure of records is textually affirmed; questioning does not increase divine knowledge.
Governing principle: affirm the revealed realities while distinguishing their detailed modality, subsidiary disputes, and levels of evidentiary certainty. This prepares for the next subjects, the Basin and the Bridge.