An-Naml, "The Ant," is the twenty-seventh surah — 93 verses revealed in Mecca.1 It is named for one of the smallest creatures in the Quran: an ant who sees Solomon's army approaching and warns her colony to take shelter.
What it is about
The surah is a meditation on power and gratitude. Its central figure, Solomon, is given more than any king — the speech of birds, armies of jinn and men — and at every turn he answers with thanks. It sets him beside a queen who rules a wealthy people who worship the sun, and shows how she is brought to faith without a battle. Around these stories the surah asks, again and again, who really creates, provides and answers prayer.
Key themes
Moses at the fire. The surah opens briefly with Moses, called at the fire — "O Moses, indeed it is I — Allah, the Exalted in Might, the Wise" — and given nine signs that Pharaoh's people rejected "while their [inner] selves were convinced thereof, out of injustice and haughtiness."2
Solomon and the ant. David and Solomon are given knowledge, and Solomon inherits David: "we have been taught the language of birds." When his army reaches the valley of the ants, one ant cries, "O ants, enter your dwellings that you not be crushed by Solomon and his soldiers while they perceive not." Solomon smiles, and prays: "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."3
The hoopoe and the queen. A missing hoopoe returns with news: "I found [there] a woman ruling them, and she has been given of all things, and she has a great throne. I found her and her people prostrating to the sun instead of Allah." Solomon sends a letter — "Indeed, it is from Solomon, and indeed, it is [i.e., reads]: 'In the name of Allah, the Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful.'" The queen consults her council, observes that "kings — when they enter a city, they ruin it," and sends a gift instead of an army.4 Her throne is brought to Solomon "before your glance returns to you," and he says, "This is from the favor of my Lord to test me whether I will be grateful or ungrateful." Arriving at his palace she mistakes its glass floor for water, and says: "My Lord, indeed I have wronged myself, and I submit with Solomon to Allah, Lord of the worlds."5
"Is there a deity with Allah?" After briefer accounts of Salih and Lot, the surah asks five times in succession who created the heavens and earth, made the earth stable, guides through darkness, begins and repeats creation — and "who responds to the desperate one when he calls upon Him and removes evil... Is there a deity with Allah? Little do you remember."6
The approach of the Hour. The surah foretells "a creature from the earth speaking to them" before the end,7 and the Day when "you see the mountains, thinking them motionless, while they will pass as the passing of clouds."8
Why it matters
An-Naml offers one of the Quran's warmest portraits of power used rightly: a king who listens to an ant, thanks God for every gift, and wins a kingdom to faith by letter rather than by war. Solomon's prayer for gratitude has become a model for believers, and the surah's question — "who responds to the desperate one when he calls upon Him?" — is among the Quran's most direct appeals to lived experience. To read An-Naml in Arabic with translations and recitation, open it on Quran.com.