Ṣāliḥ preaches to his people, named Thamūd, but the leaders of the people discourage the believers. A special detail of the resistance of the leaders is that they hamstring a certain “she-camel of Allah” in opposition to the clear preaching of Ṣāliḥ (vv. 73–77). As punishment, an earthquake seizes the people (v. 78).

Different versions of the Ṣāliḥ story appear six times in the Quran. As with Hūd (v. 65 above), early Muslim writings expand the story of Ṣāliḥ, but it cannot be connected with any known past story, and pre-Islamic mention of the name Ṣāliḥ is very rare.