They did not recognize him due to the long time that had passed. [Mahmoud said: "They only denied him because of the distance of time and the change in appearance..." Ahmad said: "The coming of those who entered upon him and their recognition of him at that time indicates that merely entering upon him was followed by recognition without delay. And Allah knows best."] And his separation from them in the youth age, and their belief that he had perished, and his departure from their imaginations due to their lack of thought about him and their concern for him, and the distance of his condition that he had reached in kingship and authority from the condition he left them in, lying in the well, selling for a few dirhams, such that if they imagined that he was him, they would have deceived themselves and their assumptions. And because kingship changes the attire and adorns its owner with the awe and grandeur that makes the familiar unrecognizable to him. It was said: They saw him in the attire of Pharaoh. [The phrase "It was said they saw him in the attire of Pharaoh" means if it was intended Pharaoh of Moses, he had not yet existed. And the wording of the treasurer: the attire of the kings of Egypt, he had garments, etc. (A)] He was wearing silk garments, sitting on a throne, with a gold collar around his neck and a crown on his head, so it did not occur to them that he was him. It was said: They did not see him except from a distance, with a distance and a veil between them and him, and they only stood where those seeking needs stand. He only recognized them because he had separated from them when they were men and saw their attire close to their attire at that time, and because his ambition was tied to them and their recognition, so he was contemplating and paying attention. And Al-Hasan said: He did not recognize them until they introduced themselves to him.