It was recited as لِسَبَإٍ with inflection and without it, and the hamzah was turned into an alif. And مكنهم: with a فتح on the كاف and a كسر, it is the place of their dwelling, which is their land and the earth in which they were residing, or the dwelling of each one of them.

And it was recited: مساكنهم. And جَنَّتانِ is an alternative to آية. Or it is the news of a deleted subject, its estimation being: the verse is two gardens.

And in the nominative there is a meaning of praise, indicated by the reading of the one who read: جنتين, in the accusative as praise. If you say: what is the meaning of them being a sign? I say: the two gardens themselves were not made a sign, but rather their story, and that their people turned away from thanking Allah, the Exalted, for them, so He destroyed them, and replaced them with خمط and الأثل: a sign and a lesson for them, so that they may take heed and learn, and not return to what they were upon of disbelief and the belittling of blessings. And it is permissible to consider them a sign, meaning:

a marker indicating Allah, and His power and kindness and the obligation of thanking Him. If you say: how did Allah magnify the gardens of the people of Saba and make them a sign, while there is a village among the villages of Iraq surrounded by gardens as you wish? I say: He did not intend merely two orchards, but rather He intended two groups of orchards: one group to the right of their town, and another to its left, and each of the two groups in their proximity and closeness. As if it were one garden, just as the flourishing countryside and its orchards are. Or He meant the orchard of each man of them to the right and left of his dwelling, as He said:

We made for one of them two gardens of vines. Eat from the provision of your Lord. This is either a narration of what the prophets of Allah sent to them said, or what their state of affairs indicated. Or they are deserving of being told that, and when He said: Eat from the provision of your Lord and be grateful to Him, He followed it with: a good town and a forgiving Lord, meaning: this town in which your provision is a good town, and your Lord who provided you and sought your gratitude is a forgiving Lord for those who thank Him. And from Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him: it was the most fertile and best of lands: a woman would go out with a full basket on her head and work with her hands, walking among those trees, and the basket would fill with the fruits that would fall into it, good fruits that were not marshy. And it was said: there were no mosquitoes, flies, fleas, scorpions, or snakes in it. And it was recited: a good town and a forgiving Lord, in the accusative as praise. And from Tha'alib: its meaning is to dwell and worship الْعَرِمِ الجرذ, which burrowed into them the sugar. Bilqis, the queen, struck for them a dam between the two mountains with rock and tar, so it contained the water of the springs and rains, and left openings in it according to what they needed for their irrigation. So when they exceeded limits, it was said: Allah sent to them thirteen prophets calling them to Allah and reminding them of His blessings upon them, but they denied them and said: we do not know of any blessing from Allah that He has placed upon the dam of theirs, the خلد, which burrowed into it from below and drowned them. And it was said: العرم is the plural of عرمة, which are the piled stones. And the pile of food is also called عرمة, and the intended meaning is the مسناة which they built as a dam. And it was said: العرم is the name of the valley; and it was said: العرم is the heavy rain. And it was recited: العرم, with the راء being silent. And from Al-Dhahhak: they were in the period between Jesus and Muhammad, blessings and peace be upon them.

Eating, with a dammah and a sukoon, and with tanween and addition. And eating: the fruit. And khamt: the tree of the arak. And from Abu Ubaidah: every thorny tree. And Al-Zajjaj said: every plant that has a taste of bitterness, to the extent that it cannot be eaten. And Al-Athl: a tree that resembles the tarfa, larger and of better wood. And the reason for the nun is that its origin is 'dhawati akl akl khamt.' So the added part was omitted and the added to it took its place. Or it describes the eating with khamt, as if it were said: 'dhawati akl is ugly.' And whoever added, and it is Abu Amr alone, it is because 'akl khamt' is in the meaning of 'al-barir,' as if it were said: 'dhawati barir.' And Al-Athl and Al-Sidr are conjoined to akl, not to khamt because Al-Athl has no eating. And it was read as 'wa-athla.' And 'shay'an': in the accusative, in conjunction with 'jannatain.' And the naming of the substitute as 'jannatain' is for the sake of similarity and in it: a kind of mockery. And from Al-Hasan, may Allah have mercy on him, he said: 'Al-Sidr, because it is the most honorable of what they substituted.' And it was read: 'And is there any reward?' And 'And do we reward?' with the nun. And 'And is there a reward?' and the doer is Allah alone. And 'And does He reward?' The meaning is: that such a reward is only deserved by the disbeliever, which is the immediate punishment. And it was said: the believer's bad deeds are expiated by his good deeds, and the disbeliever's deeds are nullified, so he is rewarded for all that he has done of evil. And another view: that the reward is general for every recompense, sometimes used in the meaning of punishment, and other times in the meaning of reward. So when it was used in the meaning of punishment in the saying: 'We rewarded them for what they disbelieved' meaning: 'We punished them for their disbelief.' It was said: 'And do we reward except the disbeliever?' meaning: 'And is he punished?' And this is the correct view, and it is not permissible for anyone to say: why was it said: 'And is there any reward except for the disbeliever?' regarding the disbeliever being specific to the reward, while the reward is general for the disbeliever and the believer, because it did not intend the general reward, rather it intended the specific one which is punishment. Rather, it is not permissible for the general to be intended when it is not appropriate. Do you not see that if you said: 'We rewarded them for what they disbelieved,' and 'And do we reward except the believer and the disbeliever:' it would not be correct and would not suffice as speech? So it becomes clear that what is imagined from the question is weak, and that the correct which cannot be other than it is what has come in the words of Allah, which falsehood does not approach from before it or from behind it.