the fish, the gourd, the seething sea

The fish
1. A big fish or whale (of unspecified species) did indeed swallow Jonah.
2. A special creation (not any fish we know of) of God accomplished the act.
3. There was no fish: the story is an allegory, the fish is a literary device in the story, the story is a vision or a dream. etc.
4. The originators of the story did indeed intend for the story to be taken literally, and it was subsequently believed to be literally true by the pre-scientific culture in which the story originated and flourished.

The gourd
1. But We cast him forth on the naked shore in a state of sickness,/And We caused to grow, over him, a spreading plant of the gourd kind
2. Gilgamesh plucks his plant from the floor of the sea which he reached by tying stones to his feet. Once he makes it back to the shore, the rejuvenating plant is eaten by a serpent.
3. Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow, which came up in a night, and perished in a night...

The seething sea
1. The seething sea ceaseth, thus the seething sea sufficeth us.
2. The seething seas ceaseth, and twiceth the seething seas sufficeth us.