Waqalati imraatu firAAawna qurratu AAaynin lee walaka la taqtuloohu AAasa an yanfaAAana (surah Qasas: 9)

Tafseer Tafheem-ul-Quran by Syed Abu-al-A'la Maududi

(28:9) Pharaoh's wife said (to him), "He is a comfort of the eyes for me and for you! Do not kill him: maybe that he proves useful to us, or we may adopt him as a son. " *12 And they were unaware (of the ultimate result).

Wa qaalatim ra atu Fir`awna qurratu `aynil lee wa lak; laa taqtuloohu `asaaa aiyanfa`anaa aw nattakhizahoo waladanw wa hum laa yash`uroon

*12) What one understands from this is briefly so: "When the ark or the basket was carried by the river to the place where Pharaoh's palaces were situated, the servants of Pharaoh picked it up and took it before the king and the queen. It is just possible that the king and the queen were at that time strolling along the river bank and might have noticed the basket and ordered it to be picked up. When they saw a child in it, they could easily guess that it belonged to an Israelite family. For it came from the quarters inhabited by the Israelites, whose sons were being put to death in those days. It was understood that somebody had hidden the child for some time but when it could not be hidden any longer, it was cast to the river in the hope that it might be picked up and rescued from death. With this in view the most obedient servants. submitted that the king order the child to be killed forthwith, for it might prove dangerous for him. But the Pharaoh's wife was a woman and might even be childless. Then it was a lovely child, as Allah has reminded Moses in Ta Ha: 39, thus: "I had cast on you love from Myself." That is "I had made you such a lovely child that the beholders could not help regarding you with love." Therefore, the woman could not help feeling for him, and said to the king, "Do not kill him, but let us adopt him. When he grows up in our house as our son, he will not know that he was an Israelite: he will rather think he is one of Pharaoh's own kinsfolk, and he will be useful for us as against the Israelites."
According to the Bible and the Talmud, the woman who had counselled adoption of, Moses was Pharaoh's daughter, but according to the Qur'an his wife (imra'at-u-Fir 'aun). Obviously, the direct Word of Allah is more reliable than the verbal traditions which were compiled centuries afterwards. Therefore, it is absolutely needless to translate imra'at-u-Fir 'aun as a woman of Pharaoh's family" against the Arabic idiom and usage only for the sake of seeking conformity with the Israelite traditions.