۞ And women in the city said: The chiefs wife seeks her slave to yield himself (to her), surely he has affected her deeply with (his) love; most surely we see her in manifest error. 30 When she heard of their malicious talk, she sent for them and prepared a banquet for them: she gave each of them a knife: and she said (to Joseph), "Come out before them." When they saw him, they did extol him, and (in their amazement) cut their hands: they said, "Allah preserve us! no mortal is this! this is none other than a noble angel!" 31 'So now you see, she said. 'This is he you blamed me for. Yes, I solicited him, but he abstained. Yet if he will not do what I command him, he shall be imprisoned, and be one of the humbled.' 32 He supplicated: 'Lord, prison is dearer to me than that to which they invite me. Yet if You do not shield me from their guile I shall yield to them and be one of the ignorant' 33 His Lord answered him and He turned their guile away from him. Indeed, He is the Hearer, the Knower. 34 Then it occurred to the men, after they had seen the signs, (that it was best) to imprison him for a time. 35