Noah is instructed to build Noah’s Ark in the Genesis flood narrative.
Genesis presents Noah as a righteous man chosen to survive a divinely sent flood. God gives him detailed instructions for constructing the vessel and tells him to bring aboard his family and representatives of the animals.
Noah is not the ark’s designer in later folklore alone; he is specifically the person named in Genesis as its builder. The story then describes him entering the ark with his wife, his sons, and their wives before the floodwaters rise.
In Islamic tradition, Noah is known as Nuh, and the flood story also includes an ark, although details differ between the Quranic account and Genesis. The biblical account is the source most commonly meant by the name “Noah’s Ark.”