S20
The ant
27:18–19 tells of an ant who warned her community — "enter your dwellings that you not be crushed" — and a prophet who heard her, smiled, and turned to gratitude.
حَتَّىٰٓ إِذَآ أَتَوْا۟ عَلَىٰ وَادِ ٱلنَّمْلِ قَالَتْ نَمْلَةٌ يَٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلنَّمْلُ ٱدْخُلُوا۟ مَسَٰكِنَكُمْ لَا يَحْطِمَنَّكُمْ سُلَيْمَٰنُ وَجُنُودُهُۥ وَهُمْ لَا يَشْعُرُونَ١٨ فَتَبَسَّمَ ضَاحِكًا مِّن قَوْلِهَا وَقَالَ رَبِّ أَوْزِعْنِىٓ أَنْ أَشْكُرَ نِعْمَتَكَ ٱلَّتِىٓ أَنْعَمْتَ عَلَىَّ وَعَلَىٰ وَٰلِدَىَّ وَأَنْ أَعْمَلَ صَٰلِحًا تَرْضَىٰهُ وَأَدْخِلْنِى بِرَحْمَتِكَ فِى عِبَادِكَ ٱلصَّٰلِحِينَ١٩
Transliteration: ḥattā idhā ataw ʿalā wādi l-namli qālat namlatun yāayyuhā l-namlu ud'khulū masākinakum lā yaḥṭimannakum sulaymānu wajunūduhu wahum lā yashʿurūna · fatabassama ḍāḥikan min qawlihā waqāla rabbi awziʿ'nī an ashkura niʿ'mataka allatī anʿamta ʿalayya waʿalā wālidayya wa-an aʿmala ṣāliḥan tarḍāhu wa-adkhil'nī biraḥmatika fī ʿibādika l-ṣāliḥīna
Until, when they came upon the valley of the ants, an ant said, "O ants, enter your dwellings that you not be crushed by Solomon and his soldiers while they perceive not." So [Solomon] smiled, amused at her speech, and said, "My Lord, enable me to be grateful for Your favor which You have bestowed upon me and upon my parents and to do righteousness of which You approve. And admit me by Your mercy into [the ranks of] Your righteous servants."
Translation: Saheeh International
Key words
Namla: an ant (grammatically feminine). Wa-hum lā yashʿurūn: "while they perceive not".
Classical tafsir
Ibn Kathir. "Sulayman, peace be upon him, understood what the ant said." His section then prints the verse in its translator's wording — "smiled, amused at her speech"; "My Lord! Grant me the power and ability that I may be grateful for Your favors" — which is the verse, not his comment. In the Arabic, he cites, through Ibn ʿAsakir and al-Hasan, that the ant's name was "حرس" (Ḥaras), and that she was from a tribe called Banū al-Shayṣān (quranislam.github.io). These details rest on reports whose grades were not given.
Al-Jalālayn. The valley was "located either in Tā'if or in Syria and whose ants are either small or large"; the speaker was "the queen ant who had seen Solomon's hosts".
Al-Tabari. On "while they perceive not": "وهم لا يعلمون أنهم يحطمونكم" — "they do not know that they are crushing you" (Arabic text, quranislam.github.io).
Is the talking ant meant literally? Ibn Kathir treats the ant's words as real speech that God let Solomon (pbuh) understand: "Allah enabled Sulayman to understand what the birds said", among "the blessings that Allah bestowed upon him". Al-Jalālayn's section (on 27:18 only) does not discuss Solomon's hearing, but adds a grammar note: "the ants are likened to rational beings in their use of the latter's speech." Al-Tabari's Arabic section explains the words and does not address whether the speech was real. None of the three reads it as allegory. Al-Qurtubi and al-Razi, whom readers asked about, were not available.
What they did not say. None describes how ants communicate.
How it works
Time sped up: nearby ants react within seconds, farther ones after a minute.
Text version
An ant in danger releases an alarm pheromone. Nestmates a few millimetres away react within seconds; those a few centimetres away after a minute or longer. In behaviour the signal reaches up to about 10 cm, and unless reinforced it dies out within a few minutes (AntWiki). In aggressive alarm the ants are drawn towards the threat; in panic alarm the colony scatters or flees into the nest.
Each point is tied to "enter your dwellings" and "while they perceive not".
- Alarm by chemistry. Established Ant alarm signals "typically consist of two or more pheromones", which often alert, attract and provoke aggression at once. AntWiki's list of "alarm-defense substances" includes citronellal, dendrolasin, dimethyl sulfate and undecane; formic acid, used by some formicine ants, it calls "probably purely defensive" (AntWiki, from Hölldobler & Wilson).
- How far a warning reaches. Established In the ant Lasius claviger, the alarm comes from the Dufour's gland (discharged with the mandibular gland). For the full contents (about 2.5 µg of undecane), "the diffusion model of Bossert and Wilson (1963) predicts" a signal reaching "a maximum of about 20 cm in still air" — a model prediction, not a measurement. In behaviour, the system "seems designed to bring workers to the aid of a distressed nestmate over distances of up to 10 cm"; ants a few millimetres away react within seconds, those a few centimetres away take a minute or longer. Unless reinforced, the signal "dies out within a few minutes" (AntWiki).
- Two kinds of alarm. Established "In aggressive alarm some of the colony members… are drawn toward the threatening stimulus"; "In panic alarm the colony as a whole flees from the stimulus" (AntWiki).
- Sound too. Established Some ants add stridulatory chirps, which "enhance attraction" (AntWiki).
- Context matters. Sasaki, Hölldobler, Millar and Pratt (2014) studied "a context-dependent alarm signal" in Temnothorax rugatulus (title; the findings have not yet been consulted).
Points of awe
Ant colonies have two alarm responses: attack, or the whole colony fleeing (AntWiki).
Reflection
The verse gives an ant a voice. She sees an army coming and calls out: "O ants, enter your dwellings that you not be crushed by Solomon and his soldiers while they perceive not" (27:18). She warns her whole community, and in the same breath she excuses the army: they would not mean it, they just would not notice. Al-Tabari explains: "they do not know that they are crushing you."
There is a lesson in that alone. She does not curse the powerful; she protects the weak and assumes no malice.
Then the prophet hears her. Solomon (pbuh) had armies of men, jinn and birds (27:17, paraphrased). He could have ignored an ant. Instead he "smiled, amused at her speech", and turned at once to gratitude: "My Lord, enable me to be grateful for Your favor which You have bestowed upon me and upon my parents" (27:19). Power, in this story, makes him listen more carefully, not less.
Real ants do raise the alarm, with chemicals and sometimes with sound, and a whole colony can flee into its nest. The verse does not describe pheromones. It describes a small creature's care for its people, and a great man's humility before it.
Questions readers ask next
Did the ant really speak?
The commentators read here (Ibn Kathir, al-Jalālayn, al-Tabari) treat it as real speech God let Solomon (pbuh) understand.
How do real ants warn each other?
Mainly with alarm pheromones, sometimes with sound; the colony may attack or flee (AntWiki).
What does "while they perceive not" mean?
That the army would crush them without knowing it (al-Tabari).
Why did Solomon (pbuh) smile and pray?
He was "amused at her speech", and turned the moment into gratitude for God's favour (27:19; Ibn Kathir).
Is the story in Jewish tradition?
Not checked.
Sources
- Saheeh International — 27:18–19.
- Ibn Kathir, Tafsir (abridged English), and Tafsīr al-Jalālayn (English), on 27:18 (the page's al-Jalālayn covers 27:18 only), https://surahquran.com/tafsir-english-aya-18-sora-27.html.
- Arabic Ibn Kathir and al-Tabari on 27:18, via quranislam.github.io, https://quranislam.github.io/tafsir/sura27-aya18.html.
- "Alarm Communication", AntWiki (excerpting Hölldobler & Wilson, The Ants), https://antwiki.org/wiki/Alarm_Communication.
- Sasaki, Hölldobler, Millar & Pratt, "A context-dependent alarm signal in the ant Temnothorax rugatulus", Journal of Experimental Biology 217:3229–3236 (2014) — citation only (the abstract was not on the page read), https://pratt.lab.asu.edu/node/68.
- Hölldobler & Wilson, "Alarm Communication" (AntWiki excerpt from The Ants)
- PBS NOVA, "How ants respond to predators suggests superorganism capabilities"
- Courthouse News on the Rockefeller University Cell study, 2025
- Sasaki et al., context-dependent alarm signal, J. Exp. Biol. 2014
- Ibn Kathīr and al-Qurṭubī on 27:18–19