His saying, exalted and majestic is He:

﴿Do they not see what is before them and what is behind them of the heaven and the earth? If We will, We can cause the earth to swallow them up or send down upon them pieces from the heaven. Indeed, in that is a sign for every servant who turns back [to Allah].﴾

﴿And We certainly gave David from Us a favor. O mountains, respond with him, and the birds. And We made iron soft for him.﴾

﴿Saying, 'Make full coats of armor and measure [the links] well. And do good; indeed, I am Seeing of what you do.'﴾

The pronoun in "they see" refers to those who do not believe in the Hereafter. Allah, exalted is He, has made them aware of His power and has frightened them of its encompassing nature over them. The meaning is: Do they not see before them and behind them My heaven and My earth? They have no way to lose sight of that from their eyes, nor can they escape its encompassing nature over them.

And the majority read: ﴿ "If We will, We can cause the earth to swallow them up,"﴾ or ﴿ "We can send down"﴾ with the letter 'n' in all three cases. Hamzah and Al-Kisai read with the letter 'y' in them, which is the reading of Ibn Wathab, Ibn Musarif, Al-Amash, and Isa, and Abu Ubaid preferred it. "The swallowing of the earth" means its collapse beneath them and their drowning in it. And "pieces" is said to be the singular form of the piece, and it is said to be the plural of kisfah, its plural being like tamrah and tamr, and its well-known plural is kisf as in sidrah and sidr.

Al-Kisai merged the 'f' into the 'b' in His saying, exalted and majestic is He: "We can cause the earth to swallow them up," Abu Ali said: This is not permissible; because the 'b' is weaker in sound than the 'f', so it should not be merged into it, even though the 'b' is merged into the 'f' as in your saying: "Strike so-and-so," and just as the 'b' is merged into the 'm' as in your saying: "Strike Muhammad," the 'm' is not merged into the 'b' as in your saying: "I am deaf to you"; because the 'b' has diminished from the 'm' due to the nasal sound that is in the 'm'.

The reference in His saying: ﴿ "In that"﴾ is to the encompassing nature of the heaven over the person and the touching of the earth to him in every state. And "the one who turns back" means the one who returns.

Then He mentioned His favor upon David and Solomon, peace be upon them, as an argument for what He granted Muhammad, blessings and peace be upon him. That is: Do not be astonished by this; indeed, We have favored our servant long ago with such and such. So when the example for Muhammad, blessings and peace be upon him, was completed, the example returned to them with the story of Sheba and what happened to them due to disbelief and arrogance. The meaning is: We said: O mountains, and "respond with him" means: return with him; because it is the intensified form of 'aab (to return). Ibn Abbas, Qatada, Ibn Zayd, and others said: Its meaning is: glorify with him, meaning: he glorifies and she echoes the glorification with him, that is, she responds with the remembrance. Then the action was intensified for emphasis, and it was said: Its meaning is: walk with him; because 'aawib' is the walking of the day. A person would walk at night and then echo the walking during the day, meaning he would repeat it, so it is as if he returns it, and it was said to him: 'aawib. And from this is the saying of the poet:

Two days are days of positions and gatherings, And a day of marching against the enemies is 'aawib.

And from this is the saying of Ibn Muqbil:

We caught up with a tribe that returned after we Pushed away the rays of the sun and the horizon was inclining.

And Mu'arrij said: "Awwibi": glorify in the language of the Abyssinians. And this is weak and not well-known. And Wahb ibn Munabbih said: the meaning is: we inspire with him, and the birds assist you in that. He said: So when David, peace be upon him, called out with lamentation and yearning, the mountains answered him, and the birds gathered around him from above. He said: From that time, he heard the echo of the mountains. And Al-Hasan, Qatadah, and Ibn Abi Ishaq read: "Awwibi" with the hamzah being pronounced and the waw being silent, meaning: "return with him," either in movement or in glorification. And he commanded the mountains as one commands a feminine singular, because all that which does not possess reason is similarly commanded, and likewise it is referred to and described. An example of this is: "O steed of Allah, ride!" And from it is: "other needs" [Ta-Ha: 18], and this is abundant.

And Al-A'raj, and Asim - with a difference - and a group from the people of Medina read: "and the birds" with the raising, as a conjunction to the wording of his saying: "O mountains." And Nafi', Ibn Kathir, Al-Hasan, Ibn Abi Ishaq, and Abu Ja'far read: "and the birds" with the accusative. It was said: that is a conjunction to "favor," and this is the opinion of Al-Kisai. And Sibawayh said: it is in the position of his saying: "O mountains" because the position of the singular address is accusative. And Abu Amr said: its accusative is due to an implied verb, the meaning of which is: and we made the birds subservient. And His saying: "And We softened for him iron" means: We made it pliable. And Qatadah and others narrated that iron was to him like wax, not needing fire in his work. And it was said: He gave him strength with which he could bend iron. It was narrated that he encountered an angel - and David, peace be upon him, thought he was a man - and David was disguised, having gone out to ask the people about himself in secrecy. So David said to that person who appeared to him as the angel: What is your opinion of this king, David? The angel said to him: Excellent is the servant, except for a flaw in him. David said: And what is it? He said: He earns from the public treasury, and if he had eaten from what his hands earned, his virtues would have been complete. So he returned and prayed to Allah to teach him a craft and make it easy for him. So Allah, glorified and exalted is He, taught him the craft of armor-making, and softened iron for him. It was reported that he would make in the span of his day and night an armor worth a thousand dirhams, until he saved much from it and his livelihood expanded. And he would spend from the public treasury on the interests of the Muslims.

And His saying, glorified and exalted is He: "That you make full coats of armor"; it was said that "that" is explanatory and has no place in grammar. And it was said: it is in the position of the accusative by omitting the preposition. And "full coats of armor" are the armors that cover completely and have sleeves. Qatadah said: David, peace be upon him, was the first to make them, and the armor of iron is feminine, while the armor of a woman is masculine.

And His saying, glorified and exalted is He: "And measure in weaving"; the interpreters differed on what the measurement is among the things of weaving. For weaving is the following of one thing with another of its kind. Al-Shammakh said: Just as the Khawariz followed the weaving of the reins.

And among them is: the weaving of speech. And it was said to the armor: it is "masrudah" because it is followed in it link by link. And from it is the saying of the poet:

"And upon them are two woven garments that David made or the maker of the full coats of armor."

And the saying of Durayd: in the Persian [language] that is smooth. Ibn Zayd said: The estimation that he was commanded with is in the measure of the ring, meaning: do not make it small so that it weakens and the armor cannot defend, nor large so that the wearer can be harmed by it. And Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him, said: The estimation that he was commanded with is the nail, meaning: estimate the nails and the rings, so that you do not drive the nail in so that it loosens, and it is narrated that it may be said 'so that it becomes loose,' and do not thicken it so that it breaks, with a qaf - and with a fa as well as a narration. And Qatadah narrated that the armors before him were plates and were heavy, so he was commanded to estimate what combines lightness and strength, meaning: estimate what you take from these two meanings in its due measure, meaning: do not aim for strength so that you burden it, nor lightness alone so that you remove the protection. And His saying: 'And do good deeds,' when the command was to Dawud and his family, it was reported even though there was no mention of them for the indication of the meaning upon them. Then He warned them with His saying: 'Indeed, I am All-Seer of what you do,' meaning: the goodness of it does not escape Me from its evil, and according to that will be My recompense for you.