Top: flare ribbons seen in the 1600 Å filter of AIA. The field of view is zoomed on the filament f1 (Fig. 1a) and is the same as the area where the electric current density is calculated in Fig. 3. Three different times are shown for the evolution of the ribbons. The strong emissions show highly structured ribbons. Bottom: QSL maps at z = 4 Mm at different iterations from the magnetofrictional evolution of model U. Similar to flare ribbons, the central parts of the QSLs are seen to move away from each other (indicated by the double red arrow). Different portions of the QSLs are also evolving, as indicated with the thick orange arrows, similar to the flare ribbons.