He meant by the misled people: those who were left behind with Harun, and they were six hundred thousand. Only twelve thousand of them were saved from the worship of the calf. If you say: In the story, it is mentioned that they remained after parting with him for twenty nights, and they counted it as forty with its days, and they said: We have completed the period, then the matter of the calf occurred after that. How can this be reconciled with Allah's saying to Musa upon his arrival: 'Indeed, We have tested your people'? I say: Allah has informed about the anticipated trial, using the wording of the existing one, as is His custom. Or the Samaritan anticipated his absence and resolved to mislead them after his departure, and he began to plan for that. So the beginning of the trial was present. It was recited: 'And the Samaritan misled them,' meaning he was the most misguided among them: because he is misguided and misleads others. He is attributed to a tribe of Bani Israel called the Samaritans. It was said that the Samaritans are a people of the Jews who differ from them in some of their religion. It was also said that he was from the people of Bajirma. It was said that he was a man from Kerman, and his name was Musa ibn Dhafar. He was a hypocrite who pretended to be Muslim, and he was from a people who worshipped cows.