When Our Decree issued, We turned (the cities) upside down, and rained down on them brimstones(1578) hard as baked clay,(1579) spread, layer on layer,-
1578 Cf. 7:84 and n. 1052, and 51:33-34. 1579 Sijjil, a Persian word Arabicised, from Sang-o-gil, or Sang-i-gil, stone and clay, or hard as baked clay, according to the Qamus. Sodom and Gomorrah were in a tract of hard, caky, sulphurous soil, to which this description well applies. Cf. 51:33, where the words are "stones of clay" (hijarah min tin) in connection with the same incident. On the other hand, in 105:4, the word Sijjil is used for pellets of hard-baked clay in connection with Abraha and the Companions of the Elephant.