This account of the origin of feminine ornaments is the same that we have found in the Midrash (see above, p. 98). It enables us to understand the meaning and to recognize the source of the following passage from the Qur'an, in which, speaking of Harut and Marut, Muhammad says that men "learnt ¹ from them that by which they separate a man from his wife." He adds, "And they used not to injure any one except by God's permission, and they teach what injureth them and doth not profit them."

It is hardly necessary to produce any further proof that the story of Harut and Marut is borrowed from a Jewish source, at least in all essential particulars, though in the names of these angels we perceive traces of Armenian and perhaps Persian influence. We have also seen that the Jews derived their form of the legend from Babylonia, and that their acceptance of it was in large measure due to a misunderstanding about the meaning of a Hebrew word in Genesis.

It may he urged that some Christians understand Gen. vi. 1-4, in much the same sense as the Jews did or still do, and that possibly this view is correct. But even granting all this, it is evident from what a corrupt source Muhammad borrowed the narrative, which, in the form in which the Qur'an and the Traditions relate it, cannot possibly be correct.

5. Other Instances.

We cannot mention with the same fulness of detail all the other points in which the Qur'an has borrowed from Jewish legends. An examination of what is related in the Qur'an in reference to Joseph, David, and Saul (Talut), for example, will show how far these accounts differ from what the Bible tells us about these persons. In most, if not in every instance, the reason of the divergence from the Biblical account is found in the fact that Muhammad followed the Jewish legends current in his time, instead of the true history of these men as given in the sacred text. Occasionally he has misunderstood the legends, or has amplified them from imagination or from other sources. But the legends already given at some length will serve as examples of all other similar ones.

We now proceed to deal with other instances in which the Qur'an's indebtedness to Jewish legends is obvious.

In Surah VII., Al A'raf, 170, we read, "And when We raised up the mountain above them as if it were a covering, and they fancied that it was falling upon them, [We said], ‘Take ye with fortitude what We have brought you, and remember ye what is in it; perchance ye may be pious.’" Jalalain and other Muhammadan commentators explain this verse by informing us that God raised up the mountain (Sinai) from its foundation and held it