The king said: "Bring him to me. So when the messenger came to Joseph, he said: "Go back to your lord and ask him: 'How fare the women who had cut their hands?' My Lord is cognisant of their guile." 50 Said [the king to the women], "What was your condition when you sought to seduce Joseph?" They said, "Perfect is Allah! We know about him no evil." The wife of al-'Azeez said, "Now the truth has become evident. It was I who sought to seduce him, and indeed, he is of the truthful. 51 "From this," said Joseph, "[The nobleman] should know that I did not betray him in his absence, and that God does not guide the plotting of the treacherous. 52 ۞ But I do not wish to absolve myself, for the soul is prone to evil, unless my Lord have mercy. Indeed my Lord is forgiving and kind." -- 53 And the king said: Bring him to me, I will choose him for myself. So when he had spoken with him, he said: Surely you are in our presence today an honorable, a faithful one. 54 [Joseph] said, "Appoint me over the storehouses of the land. Indeed, I will be a knowing guardian." 55 And thus did We give to Yusuf power in the land-- he had mastery in it wherever he liked; We send down Our mercy on whom We please, and We do not waste the reward of those who do good. 56 The reward in the next life is certainly better for the faithful ones who have observed piety in this life. 57