The first thing that stood out to me while reading the Quran was how similar the style of writing was to the Bible, from the way they describe God, to the text being split into süras and verses. I also thought it was interesting how wide a range of subjects were covered by the different süras, from the proper way to divorce, the story of the creation of man from a clot of blood, how to treat nonbelievers (or hypocrites), the importance of being giving, and many others. The text seems to function as guidelines for the practicers of Islam at points, however it also incorporates many stories with moral lessons, such as the one explaining the creation of man by God.
Including this, I was surprised to realize that many of the same figures out of the Bible, such as Noah, Moses, and Mary, were also present in the Quran. One süra which stuck out to me in particular was Süra 19: Maryam (Mary) because of how differently the story of Jesus’ birth is portrayed here compared to the Biblical version, with the Quran verse saying Mary gave birth under a palm-tree after eating some dates provided by God. I wonder if the differences in the stories could be due to the varying importance which Jesus plays in Christianity versus Islam.