77

So they set off, until, when they came to the folk of a [certain] town, namely, Antioch (Antākya), they asked its folk for food, they asked them for food by way of hospitality, but they refused to extend them any hospitality. They then found in it a wall, one hundred cubits high, about to collapse, that is, it was close to falling down because of its tilt; so he, al-Khidr, straightened it, with his [own] hands. He, Moses, said, to him, 'Had you wished, you could have taken (a variant reading [for la-ttakhadhta] has la-takhidhta) a wage for it', some [sort of] payment, since they did not extend us any hospitality despite our need for food.