The Quran Verse
Surah 28:38:
And Pharaoh said, 'O eminent ones, I have not known you to have a god other than me. Then ignite for me, O Haman, [a fire] upon the clay and make for me a tower that I may look at the God of Moses...'
The Relevant Source Text (The Bible)
Genesis 11:3–4:
"They said to each other, 'Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.' ... Then they said, 'Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens...'"
The imagery of building a tower of baked bricks to reach God is the central motif of the Tower of Babel in Genesis. In the Bible, this happens in Shinar (Babylonia) shortly after the Flood.
The Quran shifts this "hubris" onto Pharaoh and Haman. Critics argue the Quranic author repurposed the Babel story—complete with the specific detail of "fired clay/bricks"—and assigned it to the Egyptian setting to emphasize Pharaoh’s arrogance. This is seen as a literary "remixing" of Judeo-Christian themes rather than a historical account of Egyptian construction.