۞ And We certainly gave David from Us bounty. [We said], "O mountains, repeat [Our] praises with him, and the birds [as well]." And We made pliable for him iron, 10 [Commanding him], "Make full coats of mail and calculate [precisely] the links, and work [all of you] righteousness. Indeed I, of what you do, am Seeing." 11 And unto Sulaiman We subjected the wind, whereof the morning journeying was a month and the evening journeying a month. And We made a fount of brass to flow for him. And of the jinn were some who worked before him by the will of his Lord. And whosoever of them swerved from Our command, him We shall cause to taste the torment of the Blaze. 12 They worked for him whatsoever he pleased of lofty halls and statues and basins like cisterns and cauldrons standing firm. Work ye, house of Da'ud! with thanksgiving; few of My bondmen are thankful. 13 But when We decreed death for him, naught showed them his death but a creature of the earth that ate away his staff; and when it fell down, the jinn came to know plainly that if they had known the unseen, they would not have tarried in abasing torment. 14 For the people of Sheba there was a sign in their homeland: two gardens, one on the right hand and the other on the left. We said to them: "Eat what your Lord has provided for you, and be grateful. You have a good land and a Lord most forgiving." 15 But they turned away [from Us,] and so We let loose upon them a flood that overwhelmed the dams, and changed their two [expanses of luxuriant] gardens into a couple of gardens yielding bitter fruit, and tamarisks, and some few [wild] lote-trees: 16 Thus did We retribute them for their ingratitude. And none do We retribute in this manner except the utterly ungrateful. 17 And We placed between them and the cities which We had blessed [many] visible cities. And We determined between them the [distances of] journey, [saying], "Travel between them by night or day in safety." 18 But [insolently] they said, "Our Lord, lengthen the distance between our journeys," and wronged themselves, so We made them narrations and dispersed them in total dispersion. Indeed in that are signs for everyone patient and grateful. 19 And assuredly Iblis found his conjecture true concerning them; and they followed him all save a party of the believers. 20 And he had over them no authority except [it was decreed] that We might make evident who believes in the Hereafter from who is thereof in doubt. And your Lord, over all things, is Guardian. 21