Some of the principal historians assert that the tables are a metaphor to express the Mosaic Law; the correct opinion, however, is that the tables were different from the Mosaic Law; they were, namely, the ten tables which contained the ten commandments, as has been previously narrated in these pages. Some assert that Mûsa threw down these tables in his anger, so that all of them were broken to pieces; but at his request the Almighty—w. n. b. e.— recorded those commandments on other tables and sent them to him. There is also a variety of opinions concerning the material of which the said tables were made. Some say they were of emerald, other say of Zabarjad.* It is alleged that each of these tables was twelve cubits long, but some say less. Others again believe that the tables were taken froma granite rock, which the Lord of Unity had ordered to become soft; Jebrâil cut the tables from it, smoothed and planed them with his own hands, and having taken ink from the sea of light with the same pen wherewith the Qurân had been written, he recorded the ten commandments, and Mûsa—u. w. b., etc.—heard the sound of the pen when in motion.