'For whom are ye watching here?' quoth a passer-by, coming on the scene.—'For Mohammad.'—'Allah hath saved him and he hath tricked you all. He hath just departed right under your noses and after covering your pates with dust, he strode away gaily.'
Each startled man swiftly clapped his hand to his head and, withdrawing his fingers dirty with dust, gave signs of stupefaction. But, peering through a crack in the door, they saw Ali asleep on the Prophet's couch and wrapped in his green mantle. This sight set the villains' minds at rest and they all stood sentinel till dawn.
Actuated by the same impulse, when the sun rose, they battered down the door and with swords unsheathed, threw themselves on Ali. He sat up facing them. They recognised him and called out: 'How now! Can it be thee, O Ali? Where is thy companion?'—'I know not.'
In their fury at having been so finely tricked, they seized up Ali and imprisoned him in the Temple; but quickly recognising what a grave mistake they would make by being revenged on the son of Abu Talib, they set him free.
And before them have We set a barrier and behind them a barrier, and We have shrouded them in a veil, so that they shall not see.
