According to the twentieth chapter of the Quran, Samiri created the calf while Moses was away for 40 days on Mount Sinai, receiving the Ten Commandments.

Works by al-Tabari include a story in which Moses orders his people to drink from the water into which the calf had been flung; those guilty of worshiping it were revealed when they turned a golden hue.

[9] Samiri has been linked to the rebel Hebrew leader Zimri on the basis of their similar names and a shared theme of rebellion against Moses’ authority.

[9] Others link him to the Mesopotamian city of Samarra and suggest that he came from a cow-worshiping people, giving his name as Musa bin Zafar.

[10] Abraham Geiger proposed the idea that Samiri is a corruption of Samael, the name of an angel with similar functions to Satan in Jewish lore.