The disparate earth conditions during the three flights of the dove, whether explicitly described in Genesis 8:6–12 or reasonably inferred, and the relationship of the flights with one another and other happenings, disallow an iconic reading of the sequence of the events recorded in Genesis 8:5–13 (further militating against the common understanding that wayyiqtol always marks sequence): Noah did not open the window 40 days after the mountain tops appeared, but rather, after the water became powerful; and the mountain tops appeared between the first and second flights. This passage therefore is perhaps best understood as revealing the character of Noah; also, it delimits the time of the water's becoming powerful to between 16 and 23 days after the Flood began.