“When they had passed on, Moses said to his attendant, ‘Bring us our meal: this journey of ours has wearied us.’” (62)

This is the meaning of the Most High’s words: “When they reached the junction between them”—that is, the junction of the two bodies of water—“they forgot their fish”: they left their fish behind. The fish was in fact with Joshua, and it was he who forgot it; yet the forgetting was attributed to them both because they had jointly taken it as provisions for their journey. This is like saying: “The people went out to such-and-such a place and took such-and-such provisions,” even though only one of them carried them.

“And it made its way into the sea through a tunnel”: that is, a passageway. It is narrated from Ubayy ibn Ka‘b that the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said: “The water parted from the fish’s path (1), becoming an opening that did not close up. Moses then entered the opening, following the fish’s trail, and there he found al-Khidr.” (2)

Ibn ‘Abbas said: “The fish would not touch anything in the sea without it drying up until it became stone.” (3)

Al-Kalbi said: “Joshua son of Nun performed ablution from the Water of Life, and some of that water splashed upon the salted fish in the basket. It came to life and then leapt into that water. As it went, it struck with its tail, and whatever water its tail struck dried up.”

We have also been told that, when they arrived at the rock, they laid down their heads and slept. The fish stirred, emerged, and fell into the sea, making its way into the sea through a tunnel. Allah held back the flow of the water from the fish, so that it formed above it something like an arch. When Moses awoke, his companion forgot to tell him, and they continued on until the following day (4).

As for the Most High’s words, “When they had passed on,” this means that they had gone beyond that place—the junction of the two seas. Moses said to his attendant, “Bring us our meal,” meaning, our food. A morning meal is what is prepared to be eaten in the morning, while an evening meal is what is prepared to be eaten in the evening.