His saying, exalted and glorified is He:

﴿He created you from one soul, then made from it its mate, and He sent down for you from the animals eight pairs. He creates you in the wombs of your mothers, creation after creation, in three darknesses. That is Allah, your Lord; to Him belongs the dominion; there is no deity except Him. So how are you turned away?﴾

The one soul intended in the verse is the soul of Adam, peace be upon him, as stated by Qatadah and others. It is also possible that it refers to the name of the genus. And His saying, exalted and glorified is He: ﴿Then made from it its mate﴾, the apparent meaning of the wording necessitates that the making of the wife from the soul occurs after He created the creation from it. However, the matter is not as such. People have differed in interpreting this apparent meaning. One group said: His saying, ﴿He created you from one soul﴾ refers to taking the offspring from the back of Adam, and that was something that occurred before the creation of Hawwa from him. Another group said:

And 'Isa ibn Umar and Talhah ibn Musarif read "He creates you" by merging the qaf into the kaf in all of the Qur'an. The majority read: "Your mothers" with the hamzah pronounced, while Yahya ibn Wathab broke it. These are two dialects. And His saying: "In three darknesses" a group said: the first is the back of the father, then the womb of the mother, then the embryo in the belly. Mujahid, Qatadah, Al-Suddi, and Ibn Zayd said: it is the embryo, the womb, and the belly. And all of these verses are a reminder and a warning to them about the Creator, the Maker, who alone deserves worship, and all of this is in response to the matter of idols and their corruption. Then He, the Exalted, said to them: "That is Allah, your Lord," and there have been established proofs and consistent evidence for that. "So how are you turned away?" meaning: from which direction do you go astray? And by what reason?