Surah An Naml Tafseer

قَالَ عِفْريتٌ مِّنَ الْجِنِّ

An `Ifrit from the Jinn said:

Mujahid said,

"A giant Jinn."

Abu Salih said,

"It was as if he was a mountain."

أَنَا اتِيكَ بِهِ قَبْلَ أَن تَقُومَ مِن مَّقَامِكَ

I will bring it to you before you rise from your place.

Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him, said,

"Before you get up from where you are sitting."

As-Suddi and others said:

"He used to sit to pass judgments and rulings over the people, and to eat, from the beginning of the day until noon."

وَإِنِّي عَلَيْهِ لَقَوِيٌّ أَمِينٌ

And verily, I am indeed strong and trustworthy for such work.

Ibn Abbas said:

"Strong enough to carry it and trustworthy with the jewels it contains.

Suleiman, upon him be peace, said, "I want it faster than that."

From this it seems that Suleiman wanted to bring this throne as a demonstration of the greatness of the power and authority that Allah had bestowed upon him and the troops that He had subjugated to him. Power such as had never been given to anyone else, before or since, so that this would furnish proof of his Prophethood before Bilqis and her people, because this would be a great and wondrous thing, if he brought her throne as if he were in her country, before they could come to it, although it was hidden and protected by so many locked doors. When Suleiman said, "I want it faster than that