They said, 'Pray to your Lord for us, that He may make clear to us what she may be', that is, ask your Lord for us, 'What is it?' He said, 'He says she is a cow neither old, in other words, neither of old age such that its preparedness has disappeared and it is engrained in its convictions with its voraciousness for its habits, as with the Sufi after who after the age of 40 becomes [spiritually] 'cold'; nor virgin, a youth, whose preparedness falls short of what is [spiritually] required of her and who finds it difficult to bear spiritual discipline, subjugated as she is by the natural powers and her own power; middling, halfway, between that, mentioned; [so do what you have been commanded'].