Verse. 2444

'Abdullāh Ibn 'Abbās / Muḥammad al-Fīrūzabādī

تفسير : (he said) al-samiri said: (i perceived what they perceive not) i saw what the children of israel did not see. moses asked him: and what did you see that they did not? he said: i saw gabriel riding a female horse, balqa', the beast of life, (so i seized a handful from the footsteps of the messenger) from the dust upon which gabriel's horse stepped on, (and then threw it in) and threw it in the calf's mouth and behind. (thus my soul commended to me) thus did my soul entice me to do.

Jalāl al-Dīn al-Maḥallī

تفسير : he said, ‘i perceived what they did not perceive (read [either as third person plural] yabsurū or [as second person plural] tabsurū ‘[what] you [did not] perceive’), in other words, i realised what they did not realise, so i seized a handful, of dust, from the track of, [from] the hoof of the steed of, the messenger, gabriel, and threw it [in], i cast it onto the figure of the calf that had been fashioned. thus my soul prompted, [thus] it adorned for, me’ and it was cast into me [the idea] that i seize a handful of the dust from that mentioned [hoof] and cast it onto what possessed no spirit, so that it might [thus] acquire a spirit. i had seen that your people had asked that you make for them a god, and so my soul suggested to me [the idea] that this calf should be their god.