82 Preface فَلَمّا جاءَ أَمرُنا جَعَلنا عالِيَها سافِلَها وَأَمطَرنا عَلَيها حِجارَةً مِن سِجّيلٍ مَنضودٍYusuf AliWhen Our Decree issued, We turned (the cities) upside down, and rained down on them brimstones1 hard as baked clay,2 spread, layer on layer,-Cf. 7:84 and n. 1052, and 51:33-34.Sijjīl, 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 Sijjīl is used for pellets of hard-baked clay in connection with Abraha and the Companions of the Elephant.