۞ 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 more to my liking than that to which they invite me. And if You do not avert from me their plan, I might incline toward them and [thus] be of the ignorant." 33 So his Lord answered him, and He turned away from him their guile; surely He 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