Home > Surah 23 - The Believers
The Quran Verse
Surah 23:27:
So We inspired to him, 'Construct the Ark under Our observation and Our inspiration, and when Our command comes and the oven [tannur] gushes forth, embody therein from every [kind] two mates...'"
The Relevant Source Text (Mesopotamian Myth)
The Epic of Gilgamesh (Tablet XI);
In the Babylonian flood myth, the "oven" or the "surface of the earth" (the tannur) is associated with the commencement of the floodwaters.
The detail of an "oven" (Tannur) boiling over as a sign of the Flood is not found in the Bible. It is a strange, localized detail that appears in Mesopotamian legends and later Persian folklore.
Critics argue the Quranic author absorbed these colorful regional myths, confusing them with the actual biblical record of the Flood.