(87–89) “They said, ‘We did not break our promise to you of our own accord. Rather, we were made to bear burdens from the people’s ornaments, so we cast them away, and al-Sāmirī likewise cast his.’”

That is, they told him: “What we did was neither deliberate on our part nor done of our own free choice. Rather, what prompted us was our fear that keeping the people’s ornaments in our possession would be sinful.” According to the reports, they had borrowed a large amount of jewelry from the Copts and had taken it with them when they departed. When Moses left, they put it down and gathered it together so that they could consult him about it upon his return.

On the day of the drowning, al-Sāmirī had caught sight of the messenger’s tracks. His soul enticed him to take a handful from those tracks, for whenever he cast it upon anything, it came to life—as a trial and test. He cast it upon the calf he had fashioned, whereupon it began to move and produced a lowing sound. They said, “Moses has gone in search of his lord, though he is right here; Moses has forgotten him.”