ART THOU NOT aware of that [king] who argued with Abraham about his Sustainer, [simply] because God had granted him kingship? Lo! Abraham said: "My Sustainer is He who grants life and deals death." [The king] replied: "I [too] grant life and deal death!" Said Abraham: "Verily, God causes the sun to rise in the east; cause it, then, to rise in the west!" Thereupon he who was bent on denying the truth remained dumbfounded: for God does not guide people who [deliberately] do wrong. 258 Or take the man who passed by a town which lay destroyed upside down. He said: "How can God restore this city now that it is destroyed?" So God made him die for a hundred years, then brought him back to life, and inquired: "How long did you stay in this state?" "A day or less than a day," he replied. "No," He said, "you were dead a hundred years, yet look at your victuals, they have not decomposed; and look at your ass! We shall make you a warning for men. And regard the bones, how We raise them and clothe them with flesh." When this became clear to him, the man said: "Indeed God has power over all things." 259 And when Abraham said (unto his Lord): My Lord! Show me how Thou givest life to the dead, He said: Dost thou not believe? Abraham said: Yea, but (I ask) in order that my heart may be at ease. (His Lord) said: Take four of the birds and cause them to incline unto thee, then place a part of them on each hill, then call them, they will come to thee in haste, and know that Allah is Mighty, Wise. 260