And We appointed unto Moses thirty nights, _at the expiration of which We would speak to him, on the condition of his fasting during them; and they were_ [the nights of the month of] _Dhu-l-Ḳaạdeh; and he fasted during them: but, when they were ended, he disliked the smell of his breath; so he used a tooth-stick; whereupon God commanded him to fast ten other nights, that He might speak to Him with the odour of his breath,[293] as He whose name be exalted hath said_,—and We completed them by [adding] ten _nights of Dhu-l-Ḥijjeh_: so the stated time of his Lord was completed, forty nights. And Moses said unto his brother Aaron, _at his departure to the mountain for the private collocution_, Be thou my deputy among my people, and act rightly, and follow not the way of the corrupt doers _by agreeing with them in acts of disobedience_. And when Moses came at Our appointed time, and his Lord spake unto him _without an intermediary_, he said, O my Lord, show me _Thyself_, that I may see Thee. He replied, Thou shalt not see Me: but look at the mountain, _which is stronger than thou_; and if it remain firm in its place, then shalt thou see Me. And when his Lord displayed Himself to the mountain (_that is, when there appeared, of His light, half of the tip of His little finger, as related in a tradition which El-Ḥákim hath verified_), He reduced it to powder, _levelling it even with the ground around it_; and Moses fell down in a swoon. And when he recovered, he said, Extolled be Thy perfection! I turn unto Thee repenting, and I am the first of the believers _in my time_.—_God_ said _unto him_, O Moses, I have chosen thee above the people _of thy time_ [by honouring thee] by My commissions and by My speaking _unto thee_: therefore receive what I have given thee, and be of those who are grateful. And We wrote for him upon the tables of _the Law_[294] (_which were of the lote-tree of Paradise, or of chrysolite, or of emerald; in number seven, or ten_) an admonition concerning every _requisite_ matter _of religion_, and a distinct explanation of everything; _and said_, Therefore receive it with resolution, and command thy people to act according to the most excellent [precepts] thereof. (vii. 138-142.) And the people of Moses, after it (_that is, after his departure for the private collocution_), made, of their ornaments (_which they had borrowed of the people of Pharaoh_), a corporeal calf[295] _which Es-Sámiree cast for them,_[296] _and_ which lowed; _for he had the faculty of doing so in consequence of their having put into its mouth some dust taken from_ [beneath] _the hoof of the horse of Gabriel; and they took it as a god_. Did they not see that it spake not to them, nor directed them in the way? They took it _as a god_, and were offenders. But when they repented, and saw that they had erred, _which was after the return of Moses_, they said, Verily if our Lord do not have mercy upon us and forgive us, we shall assuredly be of those who perish.