Animals of the Signs · Musa's sign: “a manifest serpent”
حية العصا
The Serpent of the Staff
A shepherd's tool by day, a devourer of illusions before Pharaoh.
The account
"What is that in your right hand, O Musa?", a staff: I lean on it, I bring down leaves for my sheep. "Throw it down." And it became a rushing serpent, at Tuwa a training in fearlessness ("take it and do not fear; We will return it to its former state"), and before Pharaoh "a manifest serpent" (7:107) that swallowed the ropes and rods of the magicians' theater. The professionals fell in prostration first, they alone knew the difference between trick and creation. The Codex lists the serpent among the sign-creatures with a jurist's note: the animal existed at Allah's command inside a tool, the way every "solid" thing in the Path exists, fire that cools, sea that stands, matter awaiting instructions.
The facts
- First shownTuwa · 20:20
- Before Pharaoh“Manifest serpent” 7:107
- Convinced firstThe magicians themselves
Read beside it
On the Path
- 9Ibrahim: Fire Cool & Peaceإبراهيم النار
- 15Musa: Nile Basketموسى في التابوت
- 17Musa: Fire of Sinai (Tuwa)النار المقدسة
- 18Sea Splitانشقاق البحر
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