قَوْسُ قُزَحَ

, (S, Msb, K, &c.,) which is [an appellation applied to The rainbow] in the sky, (S,) i. e. certain streaks of an arched form appearing in the sky in the days of the [season called] رَبِيع, after rain, red and yellow and green, (TA,) is imperfectly decl. [according to general usage], (S,) [that is to say,] it is a compound of two words whereof the latter is inseparable from the former, so that one may not say تَأَمَّلْ قُزَحَ فَمَا أَبْيَنَ قَوْسَهُ [Consider thou Kuzah, for how plain is his bow!], (TA,) and the latter word is said to be the name of a certain devil, as such, imperfectly decl., (TA, Msb,) assigned to the same class as زُحَل, which, as Mbr says, is imperfectly decl. as being a proper name and deviating from its original form: (TA:) it is said in a tradition, Say not ye قَوْسُ قُزَحَ, for قُزَحُ is the name of a devil, but say قَوْسُ اللّٰهِ: (Msb, TA:) or قُزَحُ is the name of a certain angel who is charged with the management of the clouds: or the name of a certain king of the 'Ajam [i. e. Persians or foreigners]: (K: [but SM remarks upon this last saying as being very strange, deemed improbable by his sheykh (MF), and not found by himself in any book except the K:]) or قُزَحُ is the name of a mountain in El-Muzdelifeh, and the word قَوْس was prefixed to it because this was the first place over which the قوس thus called appeared in the Time of Ignorance: (TA:) or قُزَح thus used is from قُزْحَةٌ, (Msb, K, TA,) of which قُزَحٌ is plural, (Msb,) and which signifies a streak of yellow and of red and of green, (Msb, K, TA,) which are the colours that are in the [said] قوس; (TA;) and if so, it is perfectly decl. [i. e. one says قَوْسُ قُزَحٍ]: (Msb:) or it is from قَزَحَ signifying it was, or became, high, or elevated: (K, TA:) Dmr strangely asserts that قوس قزح is a mistake, and that it is correctly قَوْسُ قَزَعٍ, from قَزَعٌ signifying “ clouds. ” (MF, TA.)