List of legends in the Quran

Folklorist Alan Dundes has noted three "folktales" in the Quran that fit the pattern of those included in the Aarne–Thompson–Uther Index of folklore narratives.

(Q.25:4-6)[3]Muslims (such as Muhittin Akgul writing in Islamicity) do not deny that some stories found in the Quran are from "ancient nations", but insist they are not mythology but "factual", and were not taught to Muhammad by Jews or Christians in his region, but revealed by God and provided to humanity as guidance and "deterrents".

[4][5] Surah 5:32, when discussing the legal and moral applications to the story of Cain and Abel, is similar to what is found in the Tanhuma tradition.

Our messengers came to them with clarifications, but even after that, many of them continue to commit excesses in the land.Al-Anbiya, which tells of Abraham destroying the idols, after which he is delivered by God from being thrown into the fire, parallels a legend found in the Midrash Rabbah.

The king asked why she spoke thus, and she answered that she was afraid [that] if the ants looked at Solomon's legions they might be turned from their duty of praising God, which would be disastrous to them.

He smiled and laughed at her words, and said, 'My Lord, direct me to be thankful for the blessings you have bestowed upon me and upon my parents, and to do good works that please You.

While the King's connection to this small insect might derive from the Tanakh (e.g. Proverbs 6:6), the stories told in this narrative seem predominantly, if not exclusively, to come from a Muslim context: Solomon's dominion over demons, control of the wind, reliance upon Asaph the Jew, and confederacy with the vulture are all well-attested themes in the Quran and subsequent traditions, yet barely discoverable in a Jewish context.

[16] In the Seven Sleepers legend, seven believers from Ephesus seek refuge in a cave from pagans threatening them with death and fall into a miraculous sleep lasting hundreds of years.

[17][18] The earliest version of this story comes from the Syrian bishop Jacob of Serugh (c. 450–521), which is itself derived from an earlier Greek source, now lost.

Both the apocryphal Gospel of James and the Quran feature the legend of the naming of Mary: In the records of the twelve tribes of Israel was Joachim [...] And his wife Anna [...] And the days having been fulfilled, Anna was purified, and gave the breast to the child, and called her name Mary.The wife of Imran said, 'My Lord, I have vowed to You what is in my womb, dedicated, so accept from me; You are the Hearer and Knower.'

And the priest said to Joseph, You have been chosen by lot to take into your keeping the virgin of the Lord.Then her Lord accepted her graciously and blessed her with a pleasant upbringing and placed her in the care of Zechariah [...]These are accounts from the Unseen, which We reveal to you.

And immediately at these words the palm bent its top down to the very feet of the blessed Mary; and they gathered from it fruit, with which they were all refreshed.So she carried him, and secluded herself with him in a remote place.

"'The Syriac Infancy Gospel and the Quran share the legend of Jesus speaking from the cradle as a baby: ...when He was lying in His cradle said to Mary His mother: I am Jesus, the Son of God, the Logos, whom thou hast brought forth, as the Angel Gabriel announced to thee; and my Father has sent me for the salvation of the world.Then she came to her people, carrying him.

[35] Irenaeus, in his book Against Heresies (c. 180 CE), describes Gnostic beliefs that bear remarkable resemblance with the Islamic view: He did not himself suffer death, but Simon, a certain man of Cyrene, being compelled, bore the cross in his stead; so that this latter being transfigured by him, that he might be thought to be Jesus, was crucified, through ignorance and error, while Jesus himself received the form of Simon, and, standing by, laughed at them.

For since he was an incorporeal power, and the nous (mind) of the unborn father, he transfigured himself as he pleased, and thus ascended to him who had sent him, deriding them, inasmuch as he could not be laid hold of, and was invisible to all.And for their saying, 'We have killed the Messiah, Jesus, the son of Mary, the Messenger of God.'

[citation needed] However, the majority of modern researchers of the Qur'an as well as Islamic commentators identify Dhu al-Qarnayn as Alexander the Great.

[42] According to Muslim records, the Dhu al-Qarnayn story was revealed on the inquisition of Jews who held a high opinion of Cyrus and is also honoured in the Bible; the "He of the Two Horns" (lit.

meaning of Dhu al-Qarnayn) is allegedly referring to the two-horned ram mentioned in Book of Daniel, Chapter 8.

[44] In the west he finds the sun setting in a "muddy spring", equivalent to the "poisonous sea" which Alexander found in the Syriac legend.

[45] In the Syriac original Alexander tested the sea by sending condemned prisoners into it, but the Quran describes a general administration of justice.

[clarification needed][45] In the east both the Syrian legend and the Quran have Alexander/Dhul-Qarnayn find a people who have no protection from the heat of the rising sun.