The Quran

إِنَّما مَثَلُ الحَياةِ الدُّنيا كَماءٍ أَنزَلناهُ مِنَ السَّماءِ فَاختَلَطَ بِهِ نَباتُ الأَرضِ مِمّا يَأكُلُ النّاسُ وَالأَنعامُ حَتّىٰ إِذا أَخَذَتِ الأَرضُ زُخرُفَها وَازَّيَّنَت وَظَنَّ أَهلُها أَنَّهُم قادِرونَ عَلَيها أَتاها أَمرُنا لَيلًا أَو نَهارًا فَجَعَلناها حَصيدًا كَأَن لَم تَغنَ بِالأَمسِ ۚ كَذٰلِكَ نُفَصِّلُ الآياتِ لِقَومٍ يَتَفَكَّرونَ

Muhammad Asad

The parable of the life of this world is but that of rain which We send down from the sky, and which is absorbed by the plants of the earth¹ whereof men and animals draw nourishment, until - when the earth has assumed its artful adornment and has been embellished, and they who dwell on it believe that they have gained mastery over it² - there comes down upon it Our judgment, by night or by day, and We cause it to become [like] a field mown down, as if there had been no yesterday.³ Thus clearly do We spell out these messages unto people who think!

Lit., "with which the plants of the earth mingle".
I.e., they come to believe that they have gained "mastery over nature", with no conceivable limits to what they may yet achieve. It is to be borne in mind that the term zukhruf bears almost invariably a connotation of artificiality - a connotation which in this case is communicated to the subsequent verb izzayyanat. Thus, the whole of the above parabolic sentence may be understood as alluding to the artificial, illusory "adornment" brought about by man's technological efforts, not in collaboration with nature but, rather, in hostile "confrontation" with it.
Lit., "as if it had not been in existence yesterday": a phrase used in classical Arabic to describe something that has entirely disappeared or perished (Taj al-'Arus).