Divinity Atlas

Sacred Correspondences
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An Ant's Warning to Her Colony, and a Queen's Throne Moved in an Instant

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An Ant's Warning to Her Colony, and a Queen's Throne Moved in an Instant

Hizb 38 completes Ash-Shuara's refrain cycle with the stories of Noah, Hud and the tribe of Ad, Salih and Thamud, Lot, and Shuaib addressing the Companions of the Wood, each closing on the same repeated line this account described in the previous hizb, before the sura closes by distinguishing true revelation from poetry and defending the Quran against the accusation that it was merely the work of poets or spirits.

The hizb then opens An-Naml, the Ant, briefly retelling Moses at the burning bush before turning to an extended account of Solomon: his command over an army of jinn, humans and birds, and his understanding of the speech of birds and even ants, the detail that gives the sura its title, when an ant warns her colony to take shelter so that Solomon's army will not crush them without ever realizing it.

The hizb's longest episode follows: a hoopoe bird reports on a kingdom ruled by a queen who worships the sun, later tradition naming her Bilqis, the Queen of Sheba. Solomon sends her a letter, and after a being with knowledge of the scripture brings her throne to his court before her own arrival, she recognizes his palace floor of glass, mistaking it briefly for water, and comes to accept his message.

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