In the Hebrew Bible, the Psalms (known in Hebrew as Tehillim) are located in the third and final section called the Ketuvim (the "Writings").
In the Hebrew tradition, the 150 Psalms are strategically organized into five distinct books (1–41; 42–72; 73–89; 90–106; 107–150).
Scholars widely agree this five-fold division was designed to mirror the five-fold division of the Torah. This tells us that the Psalms were never intended to be "separate" from the Law of Moses; they were the liturgical and emotional response to that Law.
FIgures from the Ketuvim section appear in the Quran despite it only mentioning the Psalms. This suggests that as the largest book it was representative of all the books.
The word Zabur itself is the Arabic equivalent of the Syriac mazmūr (Psalm). The Zabur is traditionally identified in Islam as the holy book revealed by Allah to the Prophet Dawud (David). It is one of the four primary scriptures mentioned by name in the Quran, alongside the Tawrat (Torah), the Injil (Gospel), and the Quran itself.
Surah 4:163
"Indeed, We have revealed to you, as We revealed to Noah and the prophets after him. And we revealed to Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, the Descendants, Jesus, Job, Jonah, Aaron, and Solomon, and to David We gave the Zabur."Surah 17:55
And your Lord is most knowing of whoever is in the heavens and the earth. And We have made some of the prophets exceed others and to David We gave the Zabur."
The most striking evidence of the Zabur's biblical origin in the Quran is Surah 21:105. It is one of the rare instances where the Quran directly quotes a previous scripture:
"And We have already written in the Zabur... that the land is inherited by My righteous servants."
This is a direct parallel to Psalm 37:29: "The righteous shall inherit the land and dwell upon it forever." This suggests that the "Zabur" known to Muhammad was not a lost, mysterious book, but the very Psalms preserved by the Jewish and Christian communities of the 7th century.
This verse effectively traps the Islamic critic: they must either admit the Psalms we have are the Zabur, or explain why a "corrupted" Bible contains the very verses the Quran claims are divine.
The Quran mention figures from the Ketuvim section:-
Book of Pslams - David
Book of Esther - Haman
Book of Ezra - Ezra
Book of Proverbs/Ecclesiastes - Solomon
Book of Job - Job
The Quran is not clear but what is clear is that it takes figures and stories from outside the Hebrew and Christian understanding of Torah and Psalms. From the Prophets section of the Hebrew Bible we see mention of Jonah who also does not fit. The Quran is not as clear as it claims to be.