Assalam alaikum "Then We placed him as a drop in a place of rest." This statement is from Sura 23:13. The drop or nutfah has been interpreted as the sperm or the zygote which divides to form a blastocyst which is implanted in the uterus ("a place of rest"). This interpretation is supported by another verse in the Qur'an which states that "a human being is created from a mixed drop." The zygote forms by the union of a mixture of the sperm and the ovum ("The mixed drop"). A human being develops from a single cell, the zygote, which forms when an ovum (Latin for egg) is fertilized by a sperm (Greek for seed). The Quran refers to this process as follows: ثُمَّ جَعَلَ نَسْلَهُ مِن سُلَالَةٍ مِّن مَّاءٍ مَّهِينٍ Surah 32, Ayah 8 "And made his progeny from the quintessence of a despised liquid" http://quran.com/32/8 أَلَمْ يَكُ نُطْفَةً مِّن مَّنِيٍّ يُمْنَىٰ Surah 75, Ayah 37 "Had he not been a sperm/nutfah from semen emitted?? http://quran.com/75/37 Indeed, We created man from a sperm-drop mixture/nutfah amshag/ that We may try him; and We made him hearing and seeing. Surah 76, Ayah 2 "Verily We created Man from a drop of mingled sperm" http://quran.com/76/2 The above Ayat make it clear that the sperms are derived from a very small part of the fluid or the semen that is ejaculated from the penis. They are expelled from the urethra via the same route followed by the urine that is sometimes referred to as a "despised fluid." There are other references in the Quran to the origin of man from a small quantity of "mingled fluids", undoubtedly the male and female sexual secretions. The resulting mixture (drop) composed of the ovum and the penetrating sperm, becomes a zygote. A popular idea in the 17th century among scientists was that sperm contained a miniature human being that simply enlarged inside the sperm. Another equally strong idea was that the ovum contained a miniature human being that was stimulated to grow by the semen. It was not until the 18th century that Spallanzani experimentally demonstrated that the initiation of development required sex products from male and female. From his experiments, including artificial insemination in dogs, he concluded that sperm was the fertilizing agent. The mixture of the male and female fluids was discovered recently though it was known in the Quran for fourteen centuries. There are some theories that the female fluid acts as an agent to prevent the rejection of the sperms, which are foreign bodies in the uterus. In the following Ayah, more details are given about the staging process: Surah 23, Ayah 12-14 "Man We did create from a quintessence (of clay), (Arabic, sulalah); Then We placed him as (a drop of) sperm (Arabic, nutfah) in a place of rest, firmly fixed; Then We made the sperm into a clot of congealed blood (Arabic, alakah); then of that clot We made a (fetus) lump (Arabic, mudgah); then we made out of that lump bones and clothed the bones with flesh; then we developed out of it another creature. So blessed be Allah, the best to create!" This Ayah states that God made human from a drop into a thing that clings in the mother’s womb, then to a leech-like form that soon changed to a shape that looks like a piece of chewed gum. The "mudgah" then took the shape of bone and was clothed with flesh. Read also: Does the Qur'an Plagiarise Ancient Greek Embryology? from : 9. The Quran and the Ancient Greeks - A Comparison http://www.quranicstudies.com/articl...yology.html#9a