27وَالجانَّ خَلَقناهُ مِن قَبلُ مِن نارِ السَّمومِMuhammad Asadwhereas the invisible beings We had created, [long] before that, out of the fire of scorching winds.1Cf. 55:15 - "out of the confusing flame of fire (marij min nar)": i.e., of non-corporeal elements. The noun al-jann, rendered by me as "the invisible beings", is in reality a singular, denoting here the kind of these particular beings or forces, similar to the use of the singular noun "man" (al-insan) which describes the collective entity "mankind". The etymology of the word jdnn (the plural of which is jinn) has been briefly touched upon in note 86 on 6:100; a more detailed discussion of its meaning is found in Appendix III.