And he was building the Ark, to the end of this [verse]: the [literal] exegesis of this, as indicated by its apparent sense, is a reality in which one must believe and a truth which one must affirm, in accordance with what has been transmitted in the historical accounts of the details of the story of the Flood, its time, its modality and its extent. As for the [allegorical] interpretation [of this episode], it is possible to interpret the Ark as Noah's Law (sharīʿa) borne by him and those of his people who were believers like him, as the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace: 'The likeness of the family of my house is the likeness of Noah's Ark: whose comes on board shall be saved and whoso stays behind shall drown'. And the Flood [may be interpreted] as the mastery acquired by the sea of primordial substrata and the destruction of all those who did not disengage from that [substrata] by following a prophet and cleansing their souls. Similarly, of the words of the prophet Enoch (Idrīs), peace be upon him, and of his conversations with his soul something has been related to the effect that this world is like a sea that is brimming full with water, and so if you manage to find a ship to ride upon the destruction of the body you will be delivered from it to your world; otherwise, you will drown therein and perish. On the basis of that, the meaning of 'and he was building the Ark' would be: he was adopting a Law from the wooden boards of righteous deeds and the nails of the forms of knowledge by which deeds are arranged and confirmed; and whenever a council of his people passed him, they scoffed at him: as you know is the case with scoundrels and profligates notorious for their licentiousness (ibāḥā), scoffing at adherents of the [divine] Law who are restricted by its constraints. He said, 'Though you scoff at us, in your ignorance, yet we scoff at you, upon the manifestation of the awful nature of the consequence of your disbelief and your veiledness, even as you scoff;
