۞ In the city the women gossiped: "The minister's wife longs after her page. He has captured her heart. We think she is in clear error." 30 So when she heard of their scheming, she sent for them and prepared for them a banquet and gave each one of them a knife and said [to Joseph], "Come out before them." And when they saw him, they greatly admired him and cut their hands and said, "Perfect is Allah! This is not a man; this is none but a noble angel." 31 She said, "This is he about whom you have been blaming me! And, indeed, I did try to make him yield to me, but he was unyielding. Now, however, if he does not do as I bid him, he shall certainly be put in prison and be humiliated." 32 He said: my Lord: prison is dearer to me than that to which these women call me; and if Thou avertest not their guile from me I should incline toward them and become of the Ignorant. 33 So his Lord answered his invocation and turned away from him their plot. Verily, He is the All-Hearer, the All-Knower. 34 And yet in spite of having seen these clear proofs they found it proper to incarcerate him for a time. 35