He said, “We will strengthen thine arm with thy brother, and we will give power unto you both, and they shall not equal you in our signs. Ye twain and they who shall follow you, shall gain the day.”

And when Moses came to him with our demonstrative signs they said, “This is nought but magical device. We never heard the like among our sires of old.”

And Moses said, “My Lord best knoweth on whom He hath bestowed His guidance, and whose shall be the recompense of the abode of Paradise. Verily, the wicked shall not prosper.”

And Pharaoh said, “O ye nobles, ye have no other God that I know of but myself. Burn me then, Haman, bricks of clay,¹³ and build me a tower that I may mount up to the God of Moses, for in sooth, I deem him a liar.”

And he and his hosts behaved themselves proudly and unjustly on the earth, and thought that they should never be brought back to us.

But we seized on him and his hosts and cast them into the sea: Behold, then, the end of the wrongful doers:

And we made them imâms who invite to the fire of hell, and on the day of Resurrection they shall not be helped.

We followed them with a curse in this world, and covered shall they be with shame on the day of Resurrection.

And after we had destroyed the former generations, we gave the book of the Law to Moses for man’s enlightening, and a guidance and a mercy, that haply they might reflect.

And thou wast not on the western slope of Sinai when we laid his charge on Moses, nor wast thou one of the witnesses;

But we raised up generations after Moses, men whose days were lengthened;¹⁴ neither didst thou dwell among the inhabitants of Madian to rehearse to them our signs, but we sent Apostles to them.¹⁵

Nor wast thou on the slope of Sinai when we called to Moses, but it is of the mercy of thy Lord that thou warnest a people, to whom no warner had come before thee, to the intent that they should reflect:

And that they should not say when a calamity shall befal them for their previous handy work, “O our Lord! why hast thou not sent an Apostle to us? Then we should have followed thy signs and have been of the believers.”

Yet when the truth came to them from our very presence, they said, “Unless the like powers be given to him that were given to Moses. …”¹⁶ But did they not disbelieve in what of old was given to Moses? They said, “Two works of sorcery¹⁷ have helped each other;” and they said, “We disbelieve them both.”

SAY: Bring then a Book from before God which shall be a better guide than these, that I may follow it; if ye speak the truth.

And if they answer thee not, then know that verily they are following their own caprices: and who goeth more widely astray than he who followeth his own caprice without guidance from God? for God guideth not the wicked.

And now have we caused our word to come unto them, that they may be warned:

They¹⁸ to whom we gave the Scriptures before IT, do in IT believe.