A Dictionary of Islam Being a cyclopedia of the...

Sūrah xix. 22–34: “And she conceived him, and retired with him to a far-off place. And the throes came upon her by the trunk of a palm. She said: ‘Oh, would that I had died ere this, and been a thing forgotten, forgotten quite!’ And one cried to her from below her: ‘Grieve not thou, thy Lord hath provided a streamlet at thy feet:—And shake the trunk of the palm-tree toward thee: it will drop fresh ripe dates upon thee. Eat then and drink, and be of cheerful eye: and shouldst thou see a man, say,—Verily, I have vowed abstinence to the God of mercy.—To no one will I speak this day.’ Then came she with the babe to her people, bearing him. They said, ‘O Mary! now hast thou done a strange thing! O sister of Aaron! Thy father was not a man of wickedness, nor unchaste thy mother.’ And she made a sign to them, pointing towards the babe. They said, ‘How shall we speak with him who is in the cradle, an infant?’ It said, ‘Verily, I am the servant of God; He hath given me the Book, and He hath made me a prophet; and He hath made me blessed wherever I may be, and hath enjoined me prayer and almsgiving so long as I shall live; and to be dutiful to her that bare me: and he hath not made me proud, depraved. And the peace of God was on me the day I was born, and will be the day I shall die, and the day I shall be raised to life.’”

[Professor Wahl understands this last verse to refer to Paradise, but the Muslim commentators all refer it to the place of abode; and al-Baiẓāwī and Ḥusain say it was either in Jerusalem, or Damascus, or Ramleh! Ḥusain says Jesus was born in Bethlehem. The expression, “O sister of Aaron,” as applied to the Virgin Mary, suggests an anachronism of some consequence, but the commentators get over the difficulty. The Kamālān say it is a figurative expression implying that she was pure and righteous like a sister of Aaron. But al-Baiẓāwī says it means that she was of the tribe of Aaron. European authors suggest that there was a confusion between Miriam the Virgin and Miriam the sister of Moses. Al-Baiẓāwī says: “The palm to which she fled, that she might lean on it in her travail, was a withered trunk, without any head or verdure; and this happened in the winter season, notwithstanding which, it miraculously supplied her with fruits for her refreshment, as is mentioned immediately.” Mr. Sale says: “It has been observed, that the Mohammedan account of the delivery of the Virgin Mary very much resembles that of Latona, as described by the poets, not only in this circumstance of their laying hold on a palm-tree (though some say Latona embraced an olive-tree, or an olive and a palm, or else two laurels), but also in that of their infants speaking; which Apollo is fabled to have done in the womb.” (See Homer, Hymn. in Apoll.; Callimach, Hymn. in Delum.)]