Noah and the Lion that Sneezed out Cats

 

The story of Noah’s Ark is in the Quran.  As in the Biblical version of the story, Noah takes a pair of each species on board the Ark to prepare for a largescale flood:

And when Our command came and the oven burst ˹with water˺, We said ˹to Noah˺, “Take into the Ark a pair from every species along with your family—except those against whom the decree ˹to drown˺ has already been passed—and those who believe.” But none believed with him except for a few. Quran 11:40,  Clear Quran

(In Islam, Noah is called Nuh.)  In al-islam.org from Hayat Al-Qulub, Vol. 1, Stories of the Prophet, is a story about Noah’s Ark.  This story didn’t make it to the Bible.

In the story, Allah helps out with a rat problem that developed on the Ark:

In the ship, there were a lot of rats. Allah revealed to Nuh to pat the lion. The lion sneezed and two cats, a male and a female emerged from its nasal openings. They attacked the rats and reduced their number.

So Noah pats a sick lion, and the lion sneezes out a pair of cats.  These cats then went to clean up the Ark's rat problem. 

This story is not spurious; it is affirmed in the Arabic version of Ibn Kathir on Quran 11:40.  Here, it says that Allah gave the lion a fever (or some type of sickness) to pacify the lion, so that the cattle could feel safe around the lion and not be eaten:

تَطْمَئِنّ الْمَوَاشِي وَمَعَهَا الْأَسَد ؟ فَسَلَّطَ اللَّه عَلَيْهِ الْحُمَّى فَكَانَتْ أَوَّل حُمَّى نَزَلَتْ فِي الْأَرْض ثُمَّ

Are the cattle calm and the lion with them? Then God placed a fever on him [the lion], and it was the first fever that occurred on the earth. (Google Translate)

So on the ark, Allah does a world first: He creates the first ever fever.  Now next, Ibn Kathir says that the rats in the ark were eating all the food:

شَكَوْا الْفَأْرَة فَقَالُوا الْفُوَيْسِقَة تُفْسِد عَلَيْنَا طَعَامنَا

They complained about the mouse, and they said that the foisika spoils our food. (Google Translate)

So Allah has the lion sneeze out the cats to go after the rodents:

وَ مَتَاعنَا فَأَوْحَى اللَّه إِلَى الْأَسَد فَعَطَسَ فَخَرَجَتْ الْهِرَّ

And our enjoyment, then God revealed to the lion, so he sneezed, and the cat went out. (Google Translate)

This is affirmation of the story in Hayat Al-Qulub, which is obviously folktale.  

Back in Hayat Al-Qulub, the folktale-like story on the Ark continues.  The elephant sneezes, and two pigs came out of its nostrils:

“Then Nuh patted that elephant with his blessed hand. It sneezed and at these two pigs, a male and a female came out of the two nasal openings because of which the facial matter was eliminated.”

Is it not obvious from these examples that early Islamic scholar were not able to distinguish truth from folktale?  If you are Muslim, can you really trust what you hear from your scholars?