The Quran

أَو يَكونَ لَكَ بَيتٌ مِن زُخرُفٍ أَو تَرقىٰ فِي السَّماءِ وَلَن نُؤمِنَ لِرُقِيِّكَ حَتّىٰ تُنَزِّلَ عَلَينا كِتابًا نَقرَؤُهُ ۗ قُل سُبحانَ رَبّي هَل كُنتُ إِلّا بَشَرًا رَسولًا

Muhammad Asad

or thou have a house [made] of gold, or thou ascend to heaven - but nay, we would not [even] believe in thy ascension unless thou bring down to us [from heaven] a writing which we [ourselves] could read!"¹ Say thou, [O Prophet:] "Limitless in His glory is my Sustainer!"² Am I, then, aught but a mortal man, an apostle?"

A reply to this demand of the unbelievers is found in verse 7 of Al-An'am, revealed - according to Suyuti - shortly after the present surah. But the allusion to, this and the preceding "conditions" is not merely historical: it illustrates a widely prevalent, psychologically contradictory attitude of mind - a strange mixture of prima-facie scepticism and primitive credulity which makes belief in a prophetic message dependent on the prophet's "performing miracles" (cf. 6:37 and 109 and 7:203). Since the only miracle granted by God to Muhammad is the Qur'an itself (see the first part of verse 59 of this surah, as well as note 71 above), he is bidden, in the next passage, to declare that these demands are irrelevant and, by implication, frivolous.
I.e., "miracles are in the power of God alone" (cf. 6: 109 and the corresponding note 94).