Apocryphal Details in Quranic Stories Mateen Elass The accusation that the Quran contains stories “borrowed” from foreign sources did not originate in the West but can actually be traced to those who first heard the recitations. Nine times the Quran records that the messenger was faced with the scoffing of disbelievers who labeled his accounts “tales of the ancient ones” (6.25; 8.31; 16.24; 23.83; 25.5; 27.68; 46.17; 68.15; 83.13). It is hard to deny that the Quran was heavily influenced by oral folklore of its day rooted in Jewish, Christian, Persian, and other traditions. For example: • In 18.83–99, we meet the mysterious character of Dhu’l-Qarnayn (or “Possessor of the Two Horns,” likely a reference to a great kingdom stretching from east to west). Traditional Muslim commentators identify him as Alexander the Great (which raises problems, since the Quran portrays him as obedient to Allah), who locates the place on earth where the sun sets daily (according to 18.86, it slides into a pool of warm/murky water). Of course, nothing in the Old or New Testament speaks of Dhu’l-Qarnayn or his exploits, but we find extremely close parallels in the Syriac Christian Legend Concerning Alexander and other “Alexander Romance” stories circulating among Arab Christian communities prior to the rise of Islam. • Also in Sūra 18, we find a curious account known as “the companions of the cave” (vv. 9–18). Several young men sleep in a cave for some three hundred years before waking and discovering that the cause of their persecution has long since disappeared. From at least the sixth century AD, this same story had been told among Christians with more specificity than the quranic account and was known as “the seven sleepers of Ephesus.” • In 19.22–26, a distressed and very pregnant Mary is pictured alone under a palm tree in the wilderness, about to deliver. She cries out in anguish and a voice answers her that Allah has provided a stream beneath her to quench her thirst and that if she will shake the palm tree, ripened dates will fall upon her to satiate her hunger. Where might this alternate birth narrative have come from? In chapter 20 of the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew (also known as the History of the Nativity of Mary and the Savior ’ s Infancy ), written in the early seventh century AD, we find a fanciful account of Joseph, Mary, and the toddler Jesus in the midst of their flight to Egypt. A weary Mary finds shelter under a date-bearing palm and looks wistfully at Joseph, who claims the tree is too high to climb. For his part, he bemoans the fact that they have no water. The young Jesus, in his mother’s arms, commands the tree to bend down and offer its dates (which it does, of course) and then further orders that it open from its roots a stream of clear, cool, sparkling water. As a result, the Holy Family is refreshed and sustained in their time of trial. • Also in 19.29–30, the magical story of Jesus preaching from his crib as a newborn finds its antecedent in the opening chapter of the Arabic Infancy Gospel , dating to a Syriac origin somewhere in the fifth and sixth century AD. • Both in 3.49 and 5.110 we find lists of Jesus’ miraculous accomplishments, including something not found in the New Testament – that Jesus could fashion a bird out of clay and, breathing on it, bring it to life (by the permission of Allah). In the Infancy Gospel of Thomas , dating back to the second century AD, a five-year-old Jesus fashions twelve clay sparrows on the Sabbath. When he is admonished for breaking the Sabbath, he claps his hands and commands the sparrows to fly off, which they do. The Jewish witnesses to this miracle are suitably amazed. • In Sūra 5, after Cain has slain Abel, he has no idea what to do with the body until Allah sends a raven that scratches the ground to bury its dead mate (vv. 27–31). In the third-to-sixth-century Jewish work Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer , we find the same story with the sole exception being that Adam witnesses the work of the raven and buries Abel. • In 27.17–44 we read a delightfully fantastic story of Solomon (who can speak the languages of animals) and a hoopoe that is missing from the court when Solomon summons all his subjects. The king is angry until the hoopoe returns and tells him of its discovery of the Queen of Sheba, which leads ultimately to the Queen’s visit to Solomon’s court. A parallel to this quranic account is found in the Second Targum of Esther , the dating of which makes it roughly contemporary with traditional dating of the Quran. • Lastly, seven times the Quran tells the story of the fall of Iblis (Satan) and his interactions with Adam. When Allah commands the angels to prostrate themselves before Adam, Iblis refuses, reasoning that he was created prior to Adam and of more noble material. As a result, Iblis is cast from the court of heaven. This same understanding is detailed in Jewish/Christian literature of the third and fifth centuries AD, especially in Vita Adae et Evae 13:1–16:4 and Gospel of Bartholomew 4:51–55. When all is said and done, the Quran seems to have drawn freely from apocryphal material circulating in oral forms throughout the Middle East and repurposed it to enhance its own message of submission.