And the king said, meaning the one who is mighty in his service, "Bring him to me" so that I may hear that from him and honor him. So the messenger came to bring him to the king. When he came to him, meaning Yusuf, blessings and peace be upon him, shortly thereafter, the messenger, who is the cupbearer, said to him: "Return to your lord," meaning your master the king, "and ask him" by saying to him inquiringly, "What is the matter with the women" who plotted against him, without explicitly mentioning, nor did he mention the wife of the nobleman out of honor and shyness. He said: "Those who cut their hands," meaning what is their news regarding their plotting against me, which intensified my affliction, for they know that the wife of the nobleman did not call them to her except after they testified that she had attempted to seduce me. Then she confessed to them that she had attempted to seduce me, and that I disobeyed her with the utmost disobedience. So if he asks them, the truth will become clear, for indeed your lord is unaware of their affair.

And when this was a place where he asked about the knowledge of his Lord, glorified and exalted is He, for that reason, he said, beginning anew, confirming that they acted in that matter with ignorance, like the one who denies accountability, which is the result of knowledge: "Indeed, my Lord," meaning the one who manages me and is gracious to me in all that I experience of hardship and ease, "is aware of their plotting against me when they called me to obey the wife of the nobleman. He is All-Knowing." And I will not leave prison until your Lord knows what has been concealed from Him regarding their affair, which my Lord knows, so that my innocence may be established before the eyes of the witnesses from what they accused me of regarding the prison, which should not be except for a crime. And if my innocence does not become apparent, the words of the envious will not cease against me, and they are likely to strive to diminish my status with the king. And lest they say: "This imprisonment has lasted only for a great sin," and in that would be a type of disgrace that is not hidden. And in this is evidence that striving for the innocence of one's honor is good, rather it is obligatory. And he brought forth the words in response to the king's inquiry about their affair—not in response to his inquiry to investigate their affair—because a person's inquiry about knowledge that he does not know provokes him and ignites him to search for it, unlike his inquiry to investigate for someone else, so that other may know that. So he intended by that to urge him to find in the inquiry until he knows the truth, so that he may accept thereafter all that he has been informed of; and plotting is the cunning in delivering harm.

And it is only interpreted as 'bal' for the reason that its root - the 'ya' root - has five forms: balā, bayala, labā, layaba, and yalaba. And the 'wā' root has six forms: bawala, balawa, walaba, wabala, lawaba, and labawa. And the hamzated form has four structures: labā, ba'ala, abala, and alaba. These revolve around the mixture that turns and inclines. It is as if its essence [is 'balā'] meaning trial, testing, and experience, and it can be in good and evil. That is, he mixed it with something from which he knows the hidden aspect of it. Al-Qazzaz said: 'The fitnah is specifically in evil, and the balā is the blessing, from your saying: 'ablaituhu khayran' - if you have done good to him. And something of the meanings of the root has preceded in [Surah Al-Anfal]. A she-camel that has undergone a journey and 'balā' of a journey - if the journey has exhausted it, and if it is strong against it. And the balā: the calamity, and 'ablaitu fulānan 'udhran' - that is, I came with something between me and him in which there is no blame, that is, I mixed with him something that removed the blame. And the balīyah: a beast that was tied in the pre-Islamic era at the grave of its owner and was neither fed nor watered until it died. And it is said: 'The people are of this balā and this balīyan' - that is, scattered, as if its essence is that it has settled with them a strong mixture that separated between them. And 'balā' of a thing - with the kasrah 'balā' restricted and 'balā' extended - if it perishes and is ruined. And 'buliya fulān bi-kadhā' - built for the passive, and 'ibtalā bihi' - if it afflicted him with that. And 'al-bawl': the son of a man, and a large number, and the bursting, and the opposite of excrement. And there is no doubt that each of these, if mixed with the animal, changed its state. And 'al-bāl': the concern, thought, and worry. And from that I say: 'ma bālaytu bihi' - I did not care for it, and likewise 'ma ubāliyhi balāh' - it is a source from it, and I did not care for it, and I did not 'abul', but they turned it from 'bāwaltu bihi', so that it would not be confused with 'al-bawl' - and Allah knows best. And its essence is: 'I did not employ my bāl which is my thought in it, even if he employs his thought in my matter', that is, he is less than to think about his matter. And it is known that thought is the place of the inclining mixture. And 'al-bāl': the bitterness that he works with in the land of agriculture - due to the difficulty of working with it. And 'al-bāl': a thick fish called 'jamal al-bahr' - because whoever mixed with it changed its matter. And 'al-bāl': the ease of living, and the state. And 'al-bālah': the bottle - as if it is from 'al-bawl', (p-118) and the bag, and the container of perfume. And 'al-walab': the connection, and 'labtu al-shay' - I connected it, and 'walaba huwa' - he connected and entered and hastened. And 'al-wālib': the one going in his direction - as if he was mixed with the worry that carried him to that. And 'walaba al-zar' - if it has a 'walabah', which is the offspring that has been generated from its roots. And 'al-wālibah': the offspring of the people, and the offspring of wealth, and 'al-wālibah': the quick growth. And 'lāba yalūb' - if it is thirsty, and 'al-lābah': the hot place, which is a place with large, solid black stones connected together. Whoever mixed with it was exhausted and made thirsty. And with it, the black camels that gather are named. And 'al-sammān': and 'al-lābah': the sound of the camel, which is something like the lung that the camel expels from its mouth when it is agitated - as if it is what has agitated it. And 'al-malāb': a type of perfume, and saffron, and 'al-mulawwab' - like 'al-mu'azzam' - from iron: 'al-malwā'. And 'al-lūb' - with the dam: the piece that revolves in the pot - because it changes what is in the pot by its rotation. [And 'al-lūb'] also: the saliva, and 'al-ab' - his camels became thirsty, and 'al-labwāh': the female lion; and 'al-wābil': the heavy rain with a large impact of drops, and 'al-wābilah': the offspring of camels (p-120) and sheep, and the head of the arm that is in the right, and what is wrapped from the flesh of the thigh. And 'al-muwābalah': the persistence, and 'al-mībal': a braid of a compound cord in a stick by which the camels are struck. And 'wabil al-sayd': a swift, severe chase, with the sheep, and 'balā' - if it wanted the male. And 'al-wabāl': the severity and bad end, and it is from the severity and weight. And he was afflicted with 'wabal al-jū' - that is, severe hunger. And 'al-wabīl': the bad pasture, and 'istawbalat al-arḍ' - if it does not agree with you in your food even if you love it, and it is from 'al-wabīl' - for the food that is not desired, and 'al-wabīl' from the punishment: the severe one, and it is also the stick, and the short wood that is used to beat the clothes after washing, and a small stick that is used to strike the bell, and a bundle of firewood. And 'balā': a particle used to respond to the inquiry that enters upon a negated statement, so it turns it to affirmation, unlike 'na'am' - for it is responded to by the affirmative statement. And 'balā' comes in negation without inquiry, it is said: 'You did not give me a dirham', so you say: 'balā'. And 'labā' from food - like 'raḍā': more of it. And 'al-lubāyah' - with the dam: the tree of the amṭā; and 'al-layab' - with the advancement of the lower: less than a mouthful; and 'al-yalab' - (p-121) is moved: the shield, and it is said: the armor, and the shields made of hides, or hides that are sewn together, worn on the heads especially, and the great one of everything, and the skin. And 'al-abīl' - like 'amīr': the stick, and 'al-ḥazīn' - with the Syriac, and the head of the Christians, or the monk, or the owner of the bell, a brief creation of the eye necessitating that its hamzah is extra, and the creation of the dictionary that it is original. And on both estimates, it is from the orbit of the root, for whoever mixed with it, the stick changed it, and likewise the chief. And from the hamzated 'al-libā' - like 'ḍil' - the first of the milk, and it is the most deserving of the reference. And 'al-abā' the offspring: a severity towards the head of the offspring - that is, the nipple of the she-camel - for the newborn to suckle the milk. And 'labā' and it is 'mulbi' - the milk has fallen into her udder, and that cannot be except by what mixes with her, so that it turns from her. And 'al-lab' - with the fatha: the first of the watering, and it is more intense than what is in the middle in the mixture and the reference. And 'bahā' - the lioness, and its mixture is a reference to the males of its kind, and to others by the aversion from it. And likewise 'al-labwā' - (p-122) with the wāw, and 'išār' - like 'malāqīḥ': the offspring has approached its produce, and it is clear in the reference: and 'labā' the sheep gave birth to its young and 'al-abā' - it suckled it the milk, and 'labā' the sheep and 'tabā' - it milked its milk. And 'al-ba'īl' - like 'amīr': the small weak one, 'ba'ūl' - like 'karama', and it is said: 'ḍa'īl' 'ba'īl'; and 'al-ibl' - with two kasrahs and the bā is silent - known, one falls on the plural, it is not a plural nor a name of a plural, its plural is 'abāl', the reference in its mixture by riding and carrying and otherwise is clear, and 'al-ibl' is the cloud that carries the rainwater, and it is evident in that. And 'ta'abbala 'an imra'atihi' - he refrained from approaching her - from the removal, and 'nasaka' - that is, he refrained from the mixture of the worldly that turns. And with the stick: [a strike], and whoever mixed with the stick, it turned him. And 'abal al-'ushb' - it grew long, so the camels were able to benefit from it, and it is evident in the reference. And 'al-abālah' - like 'al-ijānah': a piece of bird and horse and camel [or] consecutive from it, whoever saw something of that turned it from its state. And like 'amīr': the stick, and the head of the Christians, or the monk, or the owner of the bell, and all of that is clear in the reference. And 'al-ablu' - with the dam: (p-123) the bundle of grass, and its mixture is a reference to what it eats, and 'al-abālah' - like 'kitābah': the governance, and it is in the utmost reference for whoever has mixed with it. And 'al-ablah' - like 'farḥah': the need and the request, and it is known in that. And the blessing in the camels, and indeed he does not 'yatabil' - he does not establish on the care of the camels nor does he improve its profession, or he does not remain on it as a rider, that is, he is quick to be affected and the reference is for whoever mixed with it. And 'ta'beel al-ibl' - fattening it, that is, mixing it with what turns it. And 'al-iblah' - with the kasrah: enmity, and its reference is known, with the dam - the defect, and it is likewise, and with the fatha or with the movement: the weight and the heaviness and the sin likewise. And 'ta'beel al-mayyit' - praising him after his death, and it stirs the grief for him. And it came in 'ibālatih' - with the kasrah, and 'abaltuhu' - with two dammas emphasized: his companions, and there is no doubt that whoever came like that turned whoever came to him. And 'ḍaghāth 'ala ibālah' - like 'ijānah' and it lightens: calamity upon another, or abundance upon abundance - as if it is the opposite, and it is clear in the reference. And 'abilat al-ibl' - it became 'ta'beel' and 'ta'beel' 'abūl' - it sufficed - that is, it was satisfied with moisture from water, and 'al-rutb' with two dammas: the green of the herbs and trees or a group of green grass, and 'al-ubl' - (p-124) the residence in the pasture, and there is no doubt [in] that whoever mixed with it turned it. And 'allaba ilayh al-qawm' - they came to him from every side, and that is a reference. And 'allaba al-ibl' - he drove it, and the camels: they flowed and some of them joined others, and the donkey was driven away: he drove it severely, and gathered, and hastened, and returned, and the reference in all of that is evident. And 'al-samā' - its rain continued, that is, it turned the earth and made it habitable. And 'al-ta'lab' like 'tha'lab' - the gathering of us and of the wild donkeys and the ram, and it is a blessing, and whatever was like that turned what mixed with it. And 'al-ilb' - with the kasrah: the slackening, and a tree like the 'utruj' is poisonous, and that is evident in the reference. And with the fatha: the activity of the waterer, and the inclination of the soul towards desire, and thirst, and the planning against the enemy from where he does not know, and the musk of the goat, and the poison, and the severe chase, and the severity of fever and heat, and the beginning of the healing of the boil, and all of that is evident in the reference. And 'al-reeḥ al-ūb' - cold that blows the dust, and 'al-rajul al-ūb' - quick in pulling the bucket, or active, so whoever mixed with him turned him. And they are upon him 'alb' and 'ilb' one: gathered upon him with oppression and enmity, and that is a reference without a doubt. And 'al-ulbah' with the dam: the famine, and with the movement: the yalabah, and 'al-ta'leeb' - the incitement and corruption, and all of that is evident in the reference. And likewise 'al-mi'lab' - for the quick, and 'al-alb' - the purity, and it is a reference, and 'al-alb' - with the movement: the yalab, and it has passed that it is the shield - and Allah knows best.