The Quran

Preface

۞ وَجاوَزنا بِبَني إِسرائيلَ البَحرَ فَأَتبَعَهُم فِرعَونُ وَجُنودُهُ بَغيًا وَعَدوًا ۖ حَتّىٰ إِذا أَدرَكَهُ الغَرَقُ قالَ آمَنتُ أَنَّهُ لا إِلٰهَ إِلَّا الَّذي آمَنَت بِهِ بَنو إِسرائيلَ وَأَنا مِنَ المُسلِمينَ

Yusuf Ali

We took the Children of Israel across the sea: Pharaoh and his hosts followed them in insolence and spite.¹ At length, when overwhelmed with the flood, he said: “I believe that there is no god except Him Whom the Children of Israel believe in:² I am of those who submit (to God in Islam).”

Notice the swiftness of the action in the narrative. The execution of poetic justice could not have been described in fewer words.
That is, in the One True God. This was deathbed repentance, and even so it was forced by the terror of the catastrophe. So it was not accepted (Cf. 4:18) in its entirety. Only this concession was made, that the body was saved from the sea, and presumably, according to Egyptian custom, it was embalmed and the mummy was given due rites of the dead. But the story commemorated forever God’s working, in mercy for His people, and in just punishment of oppressors.