6. He created you from a single soul and then made a similar pair from it. And He produced for you eight pairs of cattle. He creates you in the wombs of your mothers (in stages), one phase of development after another, in three-fold (germinal) layers (of darkness).* That is Allah, your Lord; to Him belongs all Power and Authority. There is no god except Him. Then, where are you being turned away?

* The realisation that the human embryo develops in stages was not discussed and illustrated until the 15th century. Leonardo da Vinci drew the first known illustration of a foetus in the uterus in the 15th century. After the microscope was discovered in the 17th century by a Dutch microscopist, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, the early stages of chick embryo were described for the first time in history. The staging of human embryos was not described until the 20th century. Streeter (1941) developed the first system of staging of the human embryo, which has been now replaced by a more accurate system proposed by O Rahilly (1972). Therefore, the three veils of darkness may refer to: (1) the anterior abdominal wall; (2) the uterine wall; and (3) the amniochorionic membrane. According to another interpretation, the three veils of darkness may refer to: (1) chorion; (2) amnion; and (3) amniotic fluid. But the first interpretation is known to be the most logical from an embryological point of view. (See: Arey L. B. in Development of Anatomy: A Textbook and Laboratory Manual of Embryology; Moor, K. L. in The Developing Human Clinically Oriented Embryology; and O Rahilly in R. in Guide to the Staging of Human Embryo.)

خلقكم من نفس واحدة ثم جعل منها زوجها وأنزل لكم من الأنعام ثمانية أزواج يخلقكم في بطون أمهاتكم خلقا من بعد خلق في ظلمات ثلاث ذلكم الله ربكم له الملك لا إله إلا هو فأنى تصرفون