Ibn Jarīr and al-Bayhaqī also recorded this report. Al-Ḥāfiẓ Abū Mūsā al-Madīnī cited it in his book al-Tawālāt, adding an unusual clause in which Allah says to him: “You are a creature of Mine; I created you for what I willed. Therefore die a death after which you shall never live again.”
Among the angels whose names are stated explicitly in the Qur’an are Hārūt and Mārūt, according to a large number of the early scholars. Numerous traditions have circulated about their story, the majority of them originating from Israelite lore.
Imām Aḥmad transmitted a Prophetic ḥadīth on the authority of Ibn ʿUmar, which Ibn Ḥibbān declared authentic in his Taqāsīm. In my view its authenticity is questionable; what seems more likely is that it is mawqūf on ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar and that he received it from Kaʿb al-Aḥbār, as will be explained—Allah knows best.
That narration states that Venus appeared to the two of them in the form of an extraordinarily beautiful woman.
ʿAlī, Ibn ʿAbbās, and Ibn ʿUmar likewise reported that Venus had been a woman; when they asked her for what has been mentioned, she refused unless they taught her the Supreme Name. They taught it to her, she pronounced it, ascended to the sky, and became a star.
Al-Ḥākim related in his Mustadrak, from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: “In those days there was a woman whose beauty among women was like the brilliance of Venus among the rest of the planets.” This is the finest wording transmitted concerning Venus.
Some have said that their affair took place in the time of Idrīs; others claim it occurred in the time of Solomon son of David, as we have detailed in the Tafsīr.
In any case, it is an Israelite account ultimately traced back to Kaʿb al-Aḥbār, as ʿAbd al-Razzāq narrated in his Tafsīr—from al-Thawrī, from Mūsā ibn ʿUqbah, from Sālim, from Ibn ʿUmar, from Kaʿb al-Aḥbār. This is the soundest chain with the most reliable transmitters, and Allah knows best.
It has also been said that the words, “and that which was sent down to the two angels at Babylon—Hārūt and Mārūt” (Q 2:102), refer instead to two clans of the jinn. This was stated by Ibn Ḥazm, but it is a strange view and out of keeping with the wording of the verse.