۞ And women in the city said: The chiefs wife seeks her slave to yield himself (to her), surely he has affected her deeply with (his) love; most surely we see her in manifest error. 30 Hearing of their sly talk the chief's wife sent for those ladies, and arranged for them a banquet, and got ready couches, and gave each guest a knife. Then, while they were cutting and eating the fruit, she signalled Joseph: "Come out to them." When the ladies saw him they were so struck with admiration that they cut their hands, exclaiming: "Allah preserve us. This is no mortal human. This is nothing but a noble angel!" 31 Said she: "This, then, is he about whom you have been blaming me! And indeed, I did try to make him yield himself unto me, but he remained chaste. Now, however, if he does not do what I bid him, he shall most certainly be imprisoned, and shall most certainly find himself among the despised! 32 He supplicated: 'Lord, prison is dearer to me than that to which they invite me. Yet if You do not shield me from their guile I shall yield to them and be one of the ignorant' 33 So his Lord hearkened to him (in his prayer), and turned away from him their snare: Verily He heareth and knoweth (all things). 34 Yet, even after all the evidence they had seen, they thought it right to jail him for a time. 35