In examining two Judaeo-Arabic adaptations of Qiṣṣat al-ğumğuma ‘The Story of the Skull’ (Cairo JC 104 and CUL T-S 37.39) alongside two Muslim Middle Arabic versions from the Ottoman period (CUL Qq. 173 and BnF Arabe 3655), this paper explores the extent of linguistic similarities and divergences on the level of adverbial subordination, and the means through which these are expressed. It questions the long-established methodological boundaries imposed on the study of Middle Arabic, in which linguistic features of confessional varieties are generally examined in relation to Classical Arabic grammatical rules and modern spoken dialects, rather than other contemporaneous written denominational varieties of Arabic.