۞ NOW the women of the city spoke [thus to one another]: "The wife of this nobleman is trying to induce her slave-boy to yield himself unto her! Her love for him has pierced her heart; verily, we see that she is undoubtedly suffering from an aberration! 30 When she heard of their sly whispers, she sent for them and prepared a banquet. To each she gave a knife, (then called Joseph saying:) 'Come and attend to them' When they saw him, they were so taken with him that they cut their hands, and said: 'Allah save us! This is no mortal, he is no other but a noble angel' 31 Said she: "This, then, is he about whom you have been blaming me! And indeed, I did try to make him yield himself unto me, but he remained chaste. Now, however, if he does not do what I bid him, he shall most certainly be imprisoned, and shall most certainly find himself among the despised! 32 He said: my Lord: prison is dearer to me than that to which these women call me; and if Thou avertest not their guile from me I should incline toward them and become of the Ignorant. 33 So his Lord heard his prayer and repelled the women’s deceit away from him; indeed He only is the All Hearing, the All Knowing. 34 Then it occurred to them after they had seen the signs that they should imprison him till a time. 35