Chapter 16 of the Holy Quran is named Al Nahl ( النَّحْلِ ) which means "The Bee". An interesting fact is that the male honey-bee has 16 chromosomes and that the female bee has 16 pairs of chromosomes (32 in total). The chromosomes are found at the nuclei of body cells and they contain all the genetic material needed for the development and functioning of living creatures, including bees. In Bees, chromosomes direct their behavior of producing honey. Different species have different number of chromosomes. Humans have 46 while the hoopoe bird has as many as 126 chromosomes. In this chapter there are other signs referring to the numbers 16 and 32.
The word Al Nahl ( النَّحْلِ ), "The Bee" appears only one time in the whole Holy Quran. It appears in verse number 68 of this chapter:
"And thy Lord inspired the bee, 'Take to houses in the mountains, and in the trees, and in the hives they build."
Source: The Holy Quran - The Bee 16:68, translated by Edward Henry Palmer (1880)
Let us consider these facts:
This verse consists of exactly 16 unique Arabic letters (that is, repeated excluded). The 16 Arabic letters are:
( و، ا، ح، ى، ر، ب، ك، ل، ن، ت، خ، ذ، م، ج، ش، ع )
The 16th letter in the verse is the letter Lam ( لِ ) in ِthe word Al Nahl ( النَّحْلِ ), "The Bee" which is actually the last letter of this word. In other words, as the word Bee ends, 16 letters have passed in verse.
The letter Waw ( و ) in Arabic is equivalent to the word "and" in English (it has a conjunctive function). At the time the Holy Quran was revealed, this letter was written as a seperate part from the following word, and some researchers count it as such (as a seperate word). The number of words, including conjunctive Waws, in this verse is exactly 16.
The total number of verses in this chapter is 128. Verse number 128 consists of 8 words, the number 128 is equal to 16 x 8. Even more interestingly, this verse consists of 32 letters, corresponding to Bee diploid chromosome number. The verse states:
"Lo! Allah is with those who keep their duty unto Him and those who are doers of good"
Source: The Holy Quran - The Bee 16:68, translated by Edward Henry Palmer (1880)
According to one table of assigning letters number values (based on the 99 names of Allah) the letters making the arabic word Al Nahl ( النَّحْلِ ), "The Bee" gets the total value of 16.
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