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THE QUR'ÂN.
Sebâ had in their dwellings a sign; two gardens, on the right hand and on the left, 'Eat from the provision of your Lord; and give thanks to Him! a good country and a forgiving Lord!' [15] but they turned away, and we sent against them the flood of the dyke; and we changed for them their two gardens into two gardens that grew bitter fruit and tamarisk, and some few lote trees 1.
This did we reward them with, for that they misbelieved; and do we so reward any but misbelievers ?
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XXXIV, 14-19.
And we made between them and the cities which we had blessed (other) cities which were evident; and we measured out the journey: 'Journey ye thereto nights and days in safety!' And they said, 'Our Lord! make a greater distance between our journeys ;' and they wronged themselves, and we made them legends; and we tore them all to pieces; verily, in that are signs to every patient, grateful person. And Iblis verified his suspicion concerning them,
ginns to construct the temple of Jerusalem for him, and perceiving that he must die before it was completed, he prayed God to conceal his death from them lest they should relinquish the work when no longer compelled to keep to it by fear of his presence. This prayer was heard, and Solomon, who died while resting on his staff, remained in this position for a year without his death being suspected, until a worm having eaten away his staff it broke, and the corpse fell to the ground, thus revealing the fact of his death. The shameful torment which the ginns might have avoided is their forced labour in building the temple.
1 The Rhamnus Nabeca of Forshål, the Rhamnus Nabeca Spina Christi of Linnæus, its fruit, which is called Nebuk, is a small round berry, in taste something like the jargonelle pear, and is a great favourite with the Bedawîn. It grows freely in the Sinaitic peninsula.
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