And they tarried in the Cave three hundred years, of the kind based on the lunar cycles, so that every year represents one month, the total being twenty five years, which was the time of their alertness and vigilance, and remained there in addition another nine, which is the duration of a pregnancy [ḍ]. Within the verse a delightful detail is taken into account, which is that He did not say [and they tarried in the cave] thalāthamiÌata sanatin wa-tisʿan or thalāthamiÌatin wa-tisʿata sinīna, because sana is conventionally used [to denote] the time of the descent of revelation during a solar cycle and not a lunar one. And thus He mentioned the [total] number collectively [without differentiation] but then clarified it with His [other] words, so that it is possible that the specific [unit] is something other than that, such as a month, for example. He then made it clear that the [total] period was an ambiguous and unspecified number of years. For if it had been said thalāthamiÌata shahrin, sinīna, whereby sinīna substitutes for the total number, the sentence would have been sound, the intended meaning being 'such a number of years', namely twenty five. This is supported by His words afterwards:
