Relate in the book (_that is, the Ḳur-án_) _the history of_ Mary, when she retired from her family to a place towards the east, _in the house_, and she took a veil [to conceal herself] from them; and We sent unto her our spirit _Gabriel_, and he appeared unto her as a perfect man. She said, I beg the Compassionate to preserve me from thee! If thou be a pious person, _thou wilt withdraw from me_.—He replied, I am only the messenger of thy Lord [to inform thee] that He will give thee a pure son, _endowed with the gift of prophecy_. She said, How shall I have a son, when a man hath not touched me, and I am not a harlot? He answered, Thus _shall it be: a son shall be created unto thee without a father_. Thy Lord saith, This is easy unto Me; and _thus shall it be_ that We may make him a sign unto men, _showing Our power_, and a mercy from Us _unto him who shall believe in him_: for it is a thing decreed.—And she conceived him; and she retired with him [yet unborn] to a distant place _far from her family_; and the pains of childbirth urged her to repair to the trunk of a palm-tree _that she might lean against it_. _And she gave birth to the child, which was conceived and formed and born in an hour._[330] She said, Oh! would that I had died before this _event_, and had been a thing forgotten [and] unnoticed!—But he who was below her (_namely Gabriel, who was on a lower place than she_) called to her, Grieve not. God hath made below thee a rivulet: and shake thou towards thee the trunk of the palm-tree (_which was dried-up_); it shall let fall upon thee ripe dates, fresh-gathered: therefore eat _of the dates_, and drink _of the water of the rivulet_, and be of cheerful eye _on account of the child_: and if thou see any one of mankind, _asking thee concerning the child_, say, I have vowed unto the Compassionate an abstinence _from speech with mankind respecting him and other matters_; therefore I will not speak to-day unto a man _after this_.