(vii. 146-148.) And Moses returned unto his people[297] enraged _against them_, exceedingly sorrowful. He said, O my people, did not your Lord promise you a good _true_ promise, _that He would give you the Law?_ But did the time of _my absence_ seem tedious to you, or did ye desire that indignation from your Lord should befall you, and therefore did ye break your promise to me, _and abstain from coming after one?_—They answered, We did not break our promise to thee of our own authority; but we were made to carry loads of the ornaments of the people _of Pharaoh_ (_which the children of Israel had borrowed of them under pretence of_ [requiring them for] _a wedding, and which remained in their possession_), and we cast them _into the fire, by order of Es-Sámiree_. And in like manner also Es-Sámiree cast _their ornaments which he had, and some of the dust which he had taken from the traces of the hoofs of the horse of Gabriel;_ and he produced unto them a corporeal calf, _of flesh and blood_, which lowed, _by reason of the dust, the property of which is to give life to that into which it is put; and he had put it, after he had moulded the calf, into its mouth_. And they (_namely, Es-Sámiree and his followers_) said, This is your god, and the god of Moses; but he hath forgotten _his lord here, and gone to seek him. God saith_, But did they not see that it returned them not an answer, nor was able to cause them hurt or profit? And Aaron had said unto them, before _the return of Moses_, O my people, ye are only tried by it; and verily your Lord is the Compassionate; therefore follow me, _by worshipping Him_, and obey my command. They replied, We will by no means cease to be devoted to _the worship of_ it until Moses return unto us. _Moses_ said _after his return_, O Aaron, what hindered thee, when thou sawest that they had gone astray, from following me? Hast thou then been disobedient to my command, _by remaining among them who worshipped another than God_? —He answered, O son of my mother, seize me not by my beard (_for he had taken hold of his beard with his left hand_), nor by [the hair of] my head (_for he had taken hold of his hair with his right hand, in anger_). Verily I feared lest _if I followed thee (for a company of those who worshipped the calf would inevitably have followed me)_ thou shouldst say, Thou hast made a division among the children of Israel, and hast not waited for my sentence. _Moses_ said, And what was thy motive _for doing as thou hast_, O Sámiree? He answered, I saw that which they saw not;[298] therefore I took a handful _of dust_ from the foot-marks _of the horse_ of the apostle _Gabriel_, and cast it _into the molten calf_; and thus my soul allured me _to take a handful of the dust above-mentioned, and to cast it upon that which had no life, that it might have life; and I saw that thy people had demanded of thee that thou wouldst make them a god; so my soul suggested to me that this calf should be their god.