The Quran

۞ 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

Muhammad Asad

And We brought the children of Israel across the sea; and thereupon Pharaoh and his hosts pursued them with vehement insolence and tyranny, until [they were overwhelmed by the waters of the sea. And] when he was about to drown, [Pharaoh] exclaimed:¹ "I have come to believe that there is no deity save Him in whom the children of Israel believe, and I am of those who surrender themselves unto Him!"

Lit., "until, when drowning overtook him, he said". For the full story of Moses and Pharaoh, the latter's tyrannical oppression of the Israelites and their ultimate deliverance, see Exodus i-xiv, and especially (with reference to the above Qur'an-verse), ch. xiv, which narrates in great detail the miraculous escape of the Israelites and the doom of Pharaoh and his forces. It should always be remembered that all Qur'anic references to historical or legendary events whether described in the Bible or in the oral tradition of pre-Islamic Arabia - are invariably meant to elucidate a particular lesson in ethics and not to narrate a story as such: and this explains the fragmentary character of these references and allusions.