“What Allah has given me is better than what He has given you. Rather, it is you who rejoice in your gift.” (36)

“When they came to Solomon, he said, ‘Do you offer me wealth?’” Hamzah and Ya‘qub read atumiddūnī with a single doubled nūn and with the final yāʾ retained, while the others read it with two unassimilated nūns. The reciters of the Hijaz and Basra retain the yāʾ, whereas the others omit it.

“What Allah has given me”—that is, what Allah has bestowed upon me of prophethood, religion, wisdom, and dominion—“is better,” meaning more excellent, “than what He has given you. Rather, it is you who rejoice in your gift,” because you are a people who boast of worldly things and compete in accumulating them; you delight in exchanging gifts among yourselves. As for me, I do not rejoice in it, nor do I have any need of this world, for Allah Most High has granted me power within it and given me from it what He has given no one else. Yet, along with that, He has honored me with religion and prophethood.

Then he said to al-Mundhir ibn ‘Amr, the leader of the delegation: “Return to them.”