The scene recurs at several points in the Qur'an with consistent elements. God announces to the angels that he will place a deputy on the earth, or that he is creating a human being from clay, and instructs them that when he has fashioned him and breathed into him of his spirit they are to fall down in prostration. They all prostrate together, with one exception. Iblis refuses, is asked what prevented him from prostrating when he was commanded, and gives his reason plainly: I am better than he, you created me from fire and created him from clay. He is told to descend from his position, since it is not for him to be arrogant there, and is named among the debased.
What follows is a negotiation rather than a simple expulsion. Iblis asks for respite until the day they are raised, and it is granted to a stated time. He then declares what he will do with it: because God has let him go astray, he will sit in wait on the straight path and come at them from before and behind, from the right and the left, and will find most of them ungrateful. In one telling he swears by the might of God to mislead them all together, and then makes the exception himself, except your sincere servants among them, which is the same limit God had already stated. The prostration commanded was to God through his creature, not worship of Adam, a point Islamic commentary is careful about.