When they brought fleet-footed chargers in the evening to show him,
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Tafseer
'Abdullāh Ibn 'Abbās / Muḥammad al-Fīrūzabādī
تفسير : (when there were shown to him at eventide) after the zuhr (light footed coursers) pure, arab horses.
Jalāl al-Dīn al-Maḥallī
تفسير : when one evening — which is the period after midday — there were displayed before him the prancing steeds (al-sāfināt, ‘horses’, is the plural of sāfina, which denotes [a horse] standing on three legs with the fourth supported on the edge of the hoof, and derives from [the verb] safana, yasfinu sufūnan; al-jiyād is the plural of jawād, which is a ‘racer’; the meaning is that these [horses] are such that when they are halted they stand still and when they run they surpass [others] in speed). one thousand horses were displayed before him after he had performed the midday prayer, for he had wanted to use them in a holy struggle (jihād) against an enemy. but when the display reached the nine-hundredth [horse], the sun set and he had not performed the afternoon prayer. so he was greatly distressed.
