Al-Ẓarab is the singular of ẓirāb, meaning the small knolls; the horse received this name because of its great size and stout build, though others said it was for its strength. Al-Wāqidī, however, spells the name with a ṭāʾ, reading it al-Ṭarab, and explains that it was so called for its eagerness and the beauty of its neighing.
Al-Laḥīf is equivalent to lāḥif, as though the horse “blankets” the earth with its long tail; some report the name in the diminutive form Luḥayyif.
The first horse the Prophet ever owned was al-Sakb. Among the Bedouin who possessed it the horse had been known as al-Ḍaras; the Prophet bought it from him for ten awāqī. It was the first mount he rode into battle—at Uhud—when no Muslim owned a horse except this one and another that belonged to Abū Burdah ibn Niʿyār.
He also had a horse called al-Murtajiz, so named for the rhythmic beauty of its neigh, and it was white. A horse that runs lightly is described as sakb, its gait pouring forward like water.
Tamīm al-Dārī presented him with a horse named al-Ward, which the Prophet gave to ʿUmar. Al-Ward is a color midway between bay and sorrel.
He owned yet another horse called Sabḥah, from their saying “ṭaraf sābiḥ,” applied to a horse that stretches its forelegs gracefully in full stride.
Al-Dimyāṭī says: “These seven horses are agreed upon.” He then listed fifteen more over which there is disagreement, adding: “We have explained them in the Book of Horses.”
He further notes that the two side-panels of the Prophet’s saddle were woven from palm fiber.
The Prophet also had a dapple-gray mule named Duldul that al-Muqawqis had sent him, together with a donkey called ʿUfayr; and a mule called Fiḍḍah that Furwah al-Judhāmī had given him, along with a donkey named Yaʿfūr. He later bestowed that mule upon Abū Bakr, and he possessed yet another mule as well.
Abū Ḥumayd al-Sāʿidī said: “We campaigned to Tabūk, and the envoy of Ibn al-ʿAlamāʾ, the ruler of Ayla, came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ with a letter and presented him with a white mule, so the Prophet wrote…"