CHAP. LXXXVI.
Intitled, The Star which appeared by night; revealed at Mecca.
In the name of the most merciful God.
[a] The star of piercing brightness;] Some take the words to signify any bright star, without restriction; but others think some particular star or stars to be thereby intended; which one supposes to be the morning star (peculiarly called al Târek, or the appearing by nights), another Saturn (that planet being by the Arabs surnamed al Thakeb, or the piercing, as it was by the Greeks, Phænon, or the shining), and a third, the Pleiades.
[b] From the loins, and the breast-bones;] i.e. From the loins of the man, and the breast-bones of the woman. [1]
[1] Al Beidawi, Yahya.
[c] Which returneth the rain;] Or, as some expound it, Which performeth its periodic motion, returning to the point from whence it began the same. The words seem designed to express the alternate returns of the different seasons of the year.