pleased,[310] _as the art of making coats of mail, and the language of birds_. And were it not for God’s repelling men, one by another, surely the earth had become corrupt _by the predominance of the polytheists and the slaughter of the Muslims and the ruin of the places of worship_: but God is beneficent to the peoples, _and hath repelled some by others_. (ii. 247-252.) Hath the story of the two opposing parties come unto thee, _O Moḥammad_, when they ascended over the walls of the oratory of _David, having been prevented going in unto him by the door, because of his being engaged in devotion?_ When they went in unto David, and he was frightened at them, they said, Fear not: _we are_ two opposing parties. _It is said that they were two parties of more than one each; and it is said that they were two individuals, angels, who came as two litigants, to admonish David, who had ninety-nine wives, and had desired the wife of a person who had none but her, and married her and taken her as his wife._[311] [One of them said,] One of us hath wronged the other; therefore judge between us with truth, and be not unjust, but direct us into the right way. Verily this my brother _in religion_ had nine-and-ninety ewes, and I had one ewe; and he said, Make me her keeper. And he overcame me in the dispute.—_And the other confessed him to have spoken truth._—[David] said, Verily he hath wronged thee in demanding thy ewe _to add her_ to his ewes; and verily many associates wrong one another, except those who believe and do righteous deeds: and few indeed are they.—_And the two angels said, ascending in their_ [proper or assumed] _forms to heaven, The man hath passed sentence against himself. So David was admonished._ And David perceived that We had tried him _by his love of that woman_; wherefore he asked pardon of his Lord, and fell down bowing himself (_or prostrating himself_), and repented. So We forgave him that; and verily for him [was ordained] a high rank with Us (_that is, an increase of good fortune in this world_), and [there shall be for him] an excellent retreat _in the world to come_. (xxxviii. 20-24.)