His prayer was met with quite an unexpected and most favourable divine response. The angels addressed him while he was at his devotions, performing his prayer in the Temple. "O Zakariya," they said, "Here we relate to you a divine edict. Allah intimates to you the announcement of a happy event; the arrival of a male child to be called Yahya (John). His birth shall verify that a word from Allah is all that it takes for anything material or immaterial to be and to have a place in the realm of fact. He will be a son who shall be great and illustrious, spiritually attached to Allah and a virtuous Prophet whose deeds are imprinted with wisdom and piety.