God settled Adam and his offspring—or his wife—the doubt being from Abū Jaʿfar, while in the original of his book it is "his offspring"—and forbade him from the tree, which was a tree whose branches were intertwined with one another, and it had fruit that the angels ate for their eternal life, and it was the fruit that God forbade Adam and his wife from. When Iblīs wanted to cause them to slip, he entered the inside of the snake—and the snake had four legs like a Bactrian camel, among the finest beasts God created. So when the snake entered Paradise, Iblīs came out from inside it, took from the tree that God had forbidden Adam and his wife from, and brought it to Eve (1), saying: "Look at this tree! How sweet is its fragrance, how fine its taste, and how beautiful its color!" So Eve took and ate from it, then brought it to Adam and said: "Look at this tree! How sweet is its fragrance, how fine its taste, and how beautiful its color!" So Adam ate from it, and their private parts became exposed to them. Adam entered inside the tree, so his Lord called out to him: "O Adam, where are you?" He said: "I am here, O Lord!" (2) He said: "Will you not come out?" He said: "I am ashamed before You, O Lord." He said: "Cursed is the earth from which you were created, with a curse that will turn its fruit into thorns." He said: And there was no tree in Paradise nor on earth superior to the banana tree (ṭalḥ) and the lotus tree (sidr). Then He said: "O Eve, you are the one who deceived My servant; indeed, you shall not carry a pregnancy except that you carry it with hardship, and when you wish to deliver what is in your womb, you shall come close to death repeatedly." And He said to the snake: "You are the one inside whom the accursed entered until he deceived My servant; cursed are you with a curse that turns your legs into your belly, and you shall have no provision except dust. You are the enemy of the children of Adam and they are your enemies; wherever you meet one of them you shall strike at his heel, and wherever he meets you he shall crush your head." ʿUmar said: (3) It was said to Wahb: "And what did the angels use to eat?" He said: "God does as He wills." (4)
And a similar story to this was narrated on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās:
743 - Mūsā ibn Hārūn narrated to me, saying: ʿAmr narrated to us, saying: Asbāṭ narrated to us, on the authority of al-Suddī in a report he mentioned, from Abū Mālik, and from Abū Ṣāliḥ, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās—and from Murra, on the authority of Ibn Masʿūd, and from some of the Companions of the Prophet, Peace and blessings of God be upon him: When God, the Mighty and Majestic, said to Adam: "Dwell, you and your spouse, in Paradise and eat therefrom in abundance wherever you will, but do not approach this tree, lest you be among the wrongdoers," Iblīs wanted to enter Paradise to get to them, but the keepers prevented him. So he came to the snake—which was a beast with four legs like a camel, and among the finest beasts—and spoke to it to put him in its mouth so that it would enter with him to Adam. So it put him in its mouth-side—Abū Jaʿfar said: al-fuqm is the side of the mouth (5)—and the snake passed by the keepers and entered while they did not know, because of what God willed of the matter. So he spoke to him from its mouth-side, but he paid no attention to his words (6), so he came out to him and said: {O Adam, shall I guide you to the Tree of Eternity and a kingdom that does not decay?} [Sūrat Ṭāhā: 120], meaning: Shall I guide you to a tree which, if you eat from it, you will be a king like God, the Mighty and Majestic, or you will both be among the immortals (7), so you will never die. And he swore to them by God, "Indeed, I am to you one of the sincere advisors." He only intended by that to reveal to them what was hidden from them of their private parts by tearing away their clothing. He had known that they had private parts from what he used to read in the books of the angels, while Adam did not know that. Their clothing was nail-like material (al-ẓufur). Adam refused to eat from it, so Eve stepped forward and ate, then said: "O Adam, eat! For I have eaten and it did not harm me." So when Adam ate, their private parts became exposed to them, and they began to gather and sew over themselves from the leaves of Paradise (8).
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