This is an allusion to the affair of the women when they witnessed our master in his story with Zulaikha.

The meaning of “they greatly admired him” (akbarnahu) is that they declared him transcendent in their souls and magnified him above what appeared of him in the manifestation of incapacity. “And cut their hands” (wa qatta'na aydiyahunna) from doubt in him. And they uttered their saying “Perfect is Allah” (hasha lillah), meaning: perfection is for Yusuf, and he is transcendent above the attributes and characteristics of humanity, for he is not a human in reality.

The astute reader will see sterility and weakness in the interpretation of the people of the exoteric (ahl al-zahir) for the phrase “and cut their hands,” meaning their severing them with the knives that were with them when they witnessed Yusuf while they were in the gathering of Zulaikha. And does it make sense that the knives were sharp to this degree, and that the cutting encompassed the hands of everyone? Had the verse mentioned the wounding of the hands, the exoteric interpretation would have been reasonable. Let the reader, therefore, be astute.

The Third Verse: “And he said to the one whom he knew would go free, 'Mention me before your master.'