"And thus We awakened them so that they might question one another. A speaker among them said, 'How long have you remained?' They said, 'We have remained a day or part of a day.'" They had entered the cave at the beginning of the day. He said: They looked and found that a remainder of the sun still lingered, so they said: "Or part of a day." Then, they were in doubt, so they referred that back to Allah and said: "Your Lord is most knowing of how long you remained. So send one of you with this silver coin of yours," meaning: with your dirhams, "to the city." They had dirhams with them. "And let him look for which of them is most pure in food." The interpretation of Sa'id ibn Jubayr: Which of them is most lawful.

Yahya said: Among the food of their people was that which they did not deem lawful to eat.