He said, "Our Lord is He who hath given to everything its form and then guideth it aright."
"But what," said he, "was the state of generations past?"10
He said, "The knowledge thereof is with my Lord in the Book of his decrees.
My Lord erreth not, nor forgetteth.
He hath spread the earth as a bed, and hath traced out paths for you therein, and hath sent down rain from Heaven, and by it we bring forth the kinds11 of various herbs:
-'Eat ye, and feed your cattle.' Of a truth in this are signs unto men endued with understanding.
From it have we created you, and into it will we return you, and out of it will we bring you forth a second time."12
And we shewed him all our signs: but he treated them as falsehoods, and refused to believe.
He said, "Hast thou come, O Moses, to drive us from our land by thine enchantments?
Therefore will we assuredly confront thee with like enchantments: so appoint a meeting between us and you-we will not fail it, we, and do not thou-in a place alike for both."
He said, "On the feast day13 be your meeting, and in broad daylight let the people be assembled."