The Quran

Preface

خَلَقَ السَّماواتِ بِغَيرِ عَمَدٍ تَرَونَها ۖ وَأَلقىٰ فِي الأَرضِ رَواسِيَ أَن تَميدَ بِكُم وَبَثَّ فيها مِن كُلِّ دابَّةٍ ۚ وَأَنزَلنا مِنَ السَّماءِ ماءً فَأَنبَتنا فيها مِن كُلِّ زَوجٍ كَريمٍ

Yusuf Ali

He created the heavens without any pillars that ye¹ can see; He set on the earth mountains² standing firm, lest it should shake with you; and He scattered through it beasts of all kinds.³ We send down rain⁴ from the sky, and produce on the earth every kind of noble creature, in pairs.⁵

Cf. 13:2 and n. 1800.
Cf. 16:15 and n. 2038.
Cf. 2:164 and n. 166.
Note the change of the pronoun at this stage in the verse. Before this, God was spoken of in the third person. “He”, and the acts of Creation referred to were acts that, in the main, were completed when the universe as we see it came into being, though its slow age-long evolution continues. After this, God speaks in the first person “We “-the plural of honour, as explained before (see n. 56 to 2:38); and the processes spoken of are those that go on continually before us, as in the case of rain and the growth of the vegetable kingdom. In some way the creation of the heavens and the earth and animal life on it may be considered impersonal to man, while the processes of rain and vegetation may be considered in special personal relationship to him.
I think that sex life in plants is referred to, as in 13:3, where see n. 1804, though the pairs here may refer to animals also. “Noble” (karim) may refer to the more beneficent plants and trees (and animals), which God has created for man’s use.