۞ We bestowed upon David great favour. We said, "O mountains and birds! Join with him in celebrating Our praise." We softened iron for him, saying, 10 Saying: Make thou long coats of mail and measure the links (thereof). And do ye right. Lo! I am Seer of what ye do. 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 as he desired, (making) arches, images, basons as large as reservoirs, and (cooking) cauldrons fixed (in their places): "Work ye, sons of David, with thanks! but few of My servants are grateful!" 13 Yet [even Solomon had to die; but] when We decreed that he should die, nothing showed them that he was dead except an earthworm that gnawed away his staff. And when he fell to the ground, those invisible beings [subservient to him] saw clearly that, had they but understood the reality which was beyond the reach of their perception, they would not have continued [to toil] in the shameful suffering [of servitude] 14 There was evidence (of the truth) for the people of Sheba in their homeland. (We gave them) two gardens, one on the left and one on the right and (told them), "Consume the sustenance which your Lord has given to you and give Him thanks. You have a blessed land and an All-forgiving Lord". 15 But they turned away. So We let loose on them the inundation of (the dyke of) al-'Arim, replacing their gardens with two other gardens which bore only bitter gourd, and tamarisks and a few sparse lote-trees. 16 thus We requited them for their having denied the truth. But do We ever requite [thus] any but the utterly ingrate? 17 And We had placed between them and the cities which We had blest cities easy to be seen, and We had made the stages of journey between them easy; travel in them nights and days secure. 18 And they said: O our Lord! make spaces to be longer between our journeys; and they were unjust to themselves so We made them stories and scattered them with an utter scattering; most surely there are signs in this for every patient, grateful one 19 And certainly the Shaitan found true his conjecture concerning them, so they follow him, except a party of the believers. 20 He had no authority over them save for the purpose of Our knowing who believed in the world to come, and who doubted it. For your Lord keeps a watch over everything. 21