طه : ٩٦

  • قَالَ He said
  • بَصُرۡتُ I perceived
  • بِمَا what
  • لَمۡ not
  • يَبۡصُرُواْ they perceive
  • بِهِۦ in it
  • فَقَبَضۡتُ so I took
  • قَبۡضَةٗ a handful
  • مِّنۡ from
  • أَثَرِ (the) track
  • ٱلرَّسُولِ (of) the Messenger
  • فَنَبَذۡتُهَا then threw it
  • وَكَذَٰلِكَ and thus
  • سَوَّلَتۡ suggested
  • لِي to me
  • نَفۡسِي my soul
He said, "I saw what they did not see, so I took a handful [of dust] from the track of the messenger1 and threw it, and thus did my soul entice me."
Footnotes
1

i.e., a hoof-print in the sand left by the angel Gabriel's horse.

[851] Into the fire upon the melted ornaments in order to form the calf.

He said, 'I perceived what they did not perceive (read [either as third person plural] yabsuroo or [as second person plural] tabsuroo '[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.