As for the signs manifested by Moses—exalted be his glory—they include the Staff, which is the Gate, as the Mighty and Sublime said: {He said, "It is my staff; I lean upon it, and I bring down leaves for my sheep with it and I have therein other uses"}1. The "sheep" are the believers. The sorcerers are the Nakibs in the Mosaic Cycle. As for the Cloud (al-Zulla): they are the Science of Truth that shades the believers from defects and from inhabiting metamorphosed frames (al-hayakil al-musukhiyya).
Regarding the saying of the Children of Israel to Moses: {And [remember] when you said, "O Moses, we can never endure one [kind of] food. So call upon your Lord to bring forth for us from the yields of the earth its herbs and its cucumbers and its garlic and its lentils and its onions." [Moses] said, "Would you exchange what is better for what is less? Go down to Egypt (Misr), and you will have what you have asked." And they were struck with humiliation and poverty and returned with anger from God. That was because they [repeatedly] disbelieved in the signs of God and killed the prophets without right. That was because they disobeyed and [habitually] transgressed.}2
The scholars of Hadith related that when the Children of Israel were in the Levant, the Lord favored them with Lebanese apples, various grapes, fruits, and foods. They sought in exchange what we mentioned. So the Lord—the Mighty and Sublime—rebuked them with His word, and His word is the Truth: {He said, "Would you exchange what is better for what is less? Go down to Egypt, and you will have what you have asked..."}3.