His saying, glorified and exalted is He:

﴿Until when they came upon the valley of the ants, an ant said, 'O ants, enter your dwellings, lest Solomon and his soldiers crush you while they perceive not.'﴾ ﴿Then he smiled, laughing at her saying, and said, 'My Lord, enable me to be grateful for Your favor which You have bestowed upon me and upon my parents, and to do righteous deeds of which You will approve, and admit me by Your mercy among Your righteous servants.'﴾

The apparent meaning of this verse is that Solomon, peace be upon him, and his soldiers were walking on the ground. Therefore, the crushing of the ants coincides with their descent into the valley of the ants. It is possible that they were in the throne carried by the wind. The ants sensed their descent into the valley of the ants. The valley of the ants is said to be in the Levant, and it is said to be in the farthest part of Yemen, and it is known among the Arabs and mentioned in their poetry.

Abu Amr tilted the waw of 'valley,' and all of them pronounced it emphatically. Ibn Abu Ishaq read it with the tilt. Al-Mu'tamir ibn Sulaiman read from his father: 'the ants' with a damm of the meem like 'the sun.' [And an ant said] also with a damm like 'the reddish brown.' It was also narrated from him that he pronounced the noon and meem of 'the ants' with a damm. Nauf al-Bakali said: That ant was the size of a fly, and a group said: Rather, they were small.

The judge Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said: What is said about this is that the ants had a proportion to this creation like the proportion of this ant to us. It is possible that the entire creation was more complete. This ant said this meaning - which is not suitable for anything other than this expression - a saying understood by the ants, which Solomon, peace be upon him, heard from a distance. The address came as if it were from one who understands, because she commanded them with what is commanded of one who understands. It was narrated that he was three miles away, so he smiled at her saying. The smile is the laughter of the prophets in most of their affairs; nothing else is fitting for them.

His laughter was out of joy, and there was a difference about why. A group said: It was due to the blessing of Allah, blessed and exalted is He, in his hearing and understanding and the like. Another group said: It was due to the news of the ant to him and his soldiers that it negated from them the intention of the vile act, so it made the crushing happen while they did not perceive.

Shahr ibn Hawshab read: 'your dwellings' with a sukoon on the seen in the singular. In the Mushaf of Ubayy, may Allah be pleased with him, it is 'your dwellings' in the plural feminine. The majority of the reciters read: 'lest they crush you' with a shaddah on the noon and a sukoon on the ha. Abu Amr and in the narration of Ubaidah read: 'lest he crush you' with a sukoon on the noon, which is the reading of Ibn Abu Ishaq. Al-Hasan and Abu Rajaa read: 'lest they crush you' with a damm on the ya, a fatha on the ha, a kasra on the ta, and a shaddah on it and on the noon. From him also: 'lest they crush you' with a fatha on the ya, a kasra on the ha, and a shaddah on the ta. Al-Amash and Talhah read: 'lest he crush you' in a lighter form without a noon. In the Mushaf of Ubayy ibn Ka'b, it is 'lest they crush you' with a lightened noon that accepted the kaf.

'Laughing' is in the accusative case as an adverbial phrase. Muhammad ibn al-Samif'ah read it as 'laughter', which is an accusative case as a verbal noun [from an omitted verb indicated by 'he smiled', as if he said: 'he laughed a laughter']. This is the view of the author of the book, or it could be in the accusative case by the same 'he smiled' because it is in the meaning of 'he laughed'.

Then Solomon - blessings and peace be upon him - called upon his Lord to assist him and to enable him to be grateful for His blessings. This is the meaning of being devoted to gratitude. The rest of the verse is clear.