And next to this sentence...

And next to this sentence, from the tongue of David and Solomon, it continues saying: “…and they both said: ‘Praise belongs to Allah, Who has favoured us above many of His believing servants’.” It is interesting that immediately after stating the great merit of ‘knowledge’ it speaks of ‘thanksgiving’ in order to make it clear that there is a thanksgiving for every blessing, and the reality of thanksgiving is that every blessing should be used in the same way that it has been created for; and these two great prophets did their best from their knowledge in formation of a Divine government.

By the way, they introduced the criterion of their own superiority to others by having ‘knowledge’, not by having power and government, and they also applied thanksgiving for having knowledge not for other merits, because all values belong to ‘knowledge’ and all powers originate from ‘knowledge’. This point is also noteworthy that they did thank for governing over a faithful people, since governing over a corrupted group, who are disbelievers, is not an honour.

There arises a question here that why did they say in their thanksgiving that ‘He had favoured them above many of His believing servants’ and they did not say over all believing people, though they were prophets who were above all the people of their time? Using this kind of meaning may be for observing the principles of discipline and humility that one, in any rank, must not think of oneself above all.

We have been taught the language of the birds, and we have been granted of everything; verily this is the manifest favour’.” The purpose of the Arabic word /waria/ in this verse is to inherit both wealth and government, not the knowledge and prophethood, because prophethood is not something to be inherited, and the knowledge of prophets is not heritable either since it is not something to be acquired. In this verse, at first it points to inheriting Solomon from his father David.