Who when our wondrous verses are recited to him saith-"Fables of the
ancients."

We will brand him on the nostrils.

Verily, we have proved them (the Meccans) as we proved the owners of the
garden, when they swore that at morn they would cut its fruits;

But added no reserve.5

Wherefore an encircling desolation from thy Lord swept round it while they
slumbered,

And in the morning it was like a garden whose fruits had all been cut.

Then at dawn they called to each other,

"Go out early to your field, if ye would cut your dates."

So on they went whispering to each other,

"No poor man shall set foot this day within your garden;"

And they went out at daybreak with this settled purpose.

But when they beheld it, they said, "Truly we have been in fault:

Yes! we are forbidden our fruits."