What existed before the big bang?

The big bang theory suggests that the universe was created about 13.8 billion years ago in an explosive event from a superdense sphere of matter. However, the question of what existed before the big bang remains unanswered. Some scientists believed that the universe went through oscillations of expansion and contraction, while others believed in the rubber ball theory that suggested that the matter in the universe would be drawn back into another superdense ball by gravity. After 1992, new empirical evidence found that the universe will not recycle. The theory of a multi universe was then proposed, which suggests that our universe was part of a larger multiverse. The idea is based on faith, as the multiverse is separated from our universe and can never be observed, nor can there be any empirical evidence that the multiverse exists. Another possibility is that an eternal intelligence existed before matter was created. This, too, is a matter of faith as there is no empirical evidence to support its existence. What is clear is that the super dense ball of matter that initiated the big bang did not come from what we can observe, which means that there must be something outside the material universe.