Qur’anic narrative frequently employs accounts that already had some recognition among its first audience. The names of Noah, ʿĀd, Thamūd and Abraham were not utterly foreign to Arabian religious memory. Reports concerning some later prophets could also circulate through contact with Jewish and other communities.
The importance of recognition: when hearers possess even a broad outline of an event, a brief reference can summon a larger setting to mind. The Qur’an can then foreground the point of warning, reassurance or gratitude instead of first supplying an exhaustive historical introduction.
This does not require every hearer to have known every narrative in advance. It explains a communicative wisdom: a speaker considers the audience’s language, conventions and familiar examples. An abundance of obscure or sensational details could divert attention from moral admonition into the pursuit of curiosity for its own sake.