While Qur'anic narratives present complex female figures, their premodern exegetical reception has often framed them within rigid gender hierarchies. This paper examines gender (in)equalities in Islamic thought and their relevance for contemporary debates on gender justice through a close analysis of female figures in the Qurˈanic narrative and their interpretation in premodern Qurˈanic exegesis. Focusing on Imra'at al-ʿAzīz (Zulayḫā) in the Joseph narrative (Sūrat Yūsuf, Q 12) and the Queen of Sheba (Bilqīs) in the Solomon narrative (Sūrat an-Naml, Q 27), it investigates how the Qurˈān constructs gendered identities and how these portrayals were negotiated, moralized, or constrained in later interpretive traditions. Against the backdrop of late antique and interreligious textual traditions, the study asks how the Qurˈān reconfigures inherited narrative motifs and explores the emancipatory potentials that emerge from these re-accentuations. Methodologically, it combines historical-literary and gender-sensitive readings of the Qurˈanic text with an analysis of selected premodern tafsīr works, including aṭ-Ṭabarī, az-Zamaḫšarī, ar-Rāzī, al-Qurṭubī, and Ibn Kaṯīr. Particular attention is paid to exegetical strategies - such as moralization, sexualization, discourses of rationality, and the notion of kayd - through which female figures are integrated into broader systems of theological normativity and social hierarchy. Drawing on feminist Qurˈanic hermeneutics, the paper critically examines how patriarchal frameworks emerged in premodern exegesis, while also identifying interpretive openings that resist such closures. By foregrounding the tension between scripture, premodern interpretation, and contemporary re-readings, the contribution demonstrates how Islamic textual traditions both reproduce and provide resources for negotiating gender justice, authority, and equality in religious contexts.