If you say: Why was it not said: And the sorcerers came to Pharaoh and said? I say: It is based on the assumption of a questioner who asked: What did they say when they came to him? So it is answered by saying: They said, 'Indeed, we have a reward.' This means a compensation for the victory. It is also recited: 'Indeed, we have a reward,' as a statement affirming the great reward and its obligation. It is as if they said: We must have a reward, and the indefinite article is for magnification, like the saying of the Arabs: 'Indeed, he has camels,' and 'Indeed, he has sheep,' intending abundance. If you say: And indeed, you are among those brought near, what is it that it is connected to? I say: It is connected to something omitted that serves as its substitute, like a word of affirmation, as if it said affirmatively to their saying: 'Indeed, we have a reward': Yes, indeed, you have a reward, and you are among those brought near. He intended: I will limit you to the reward alone, and indeed, with the reward, there is what diminishes the reward, which is nearness and magnification. For the rewarded person only enjoys what he attains and rejoices in it when he also gains honor and elevation.

It is narrated that he said to them: You will be the first to enter and the last to exit. It is narrated that he called the leaders of the sorcerers and their teachers and said to them: What have you done? They said: We have learned a magic that the sorcerers of the people of the earth cannot withstand, unless it is a matter from the heavens, for we have no strength against it. It is narrated that they were eighty thousand. Some said seventy thousand, and some said thirty thousand. The narrations differ, some reporting less and some more. It is said that they were taught by two Magians from the people of Nineveh. It is said that Pharaoh said: We will not compete with Moses except with what is from him, meaning magic.