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 (The King) said (to the women): "What was your affair when you did seek to seduce Yusuf (Joseph)?" The women said: "Allah forbid! No evil know we against him!" The wife of Al-'Aziz said: "Now the truth is manifest (to all), it was I who sought to seduce him, and he is surely of the truthful." 51 Joseph said: "I did this so that he [i.e. the chief) may know that I did not betray him in his absence, and that Allah does not allow the design of the treacherous to succeed. 52 ۞ Yet I claim not that my soul was innocent -- surely the soul of man incites to evil -- except inasmuch as my Lord had mercy; truly my Lord is All-forgiving, All-compassionate.' 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] replied: "Place in my charge the store-houses of the land; behold, I shall be a good and knowing keeper. 55 And this is how We gave Yusuf the control over that land; to stay in it wherever he pleased; We may convey Our mercy to whomever We will, and We do not waste the wages of the righteous. 56 The reward in the next life is certainly better for the faithful ones who have observed piety in this life. 57