from Abū Umāmah al-Bāhilī, from Hishām ibn al-ʿĀṣ al-Umayyī, who said:
“I and another man from Quraysh were sent to Heraclius to invite him to Islam. On the way we lodged with Jabalah ibn al-Ayham al-Ghassānī. We entered upon him while he was seated on his throne. He dispatched a messenger to speak with us, but we said, ‘By God, we will not converse with an envoy; we were sent to address the king himself.’ He therefore granted us admittance and said, ‘Speak.’ We spoke with him and called him to Islam. He was dressed in black, so we asked, ‘What is this attire?’ He replied, ‘I have put it on and sworn not to remove it until I drive you out of Syria.’ We said, ‘As for this seat of yours—by God, we shall wrest it from you, and we shall take the realm of the supreme emperor as well, if Allah wills; our Prophet has informed us of that.’ He retorted, ‘You are not the people who will accomplish this. Rather, it will be a people who fast by day. How do you fast?’ We explained our fasting to him, whereupon his face darkened. He said, ‘Rise!’ and sent an escort with us to the emperor.
“When we drew near the imperial city, our escort said, ‘These mounts of yours may not enter the king’s city. If you wish, we can provide palfreys and mules for you.’ We replied, ‘By Allah, we will enter only on these.’ They informed the emperor of our refusal, and so we entered on our riding-animals with our swords strapped on. We advanced until we reached an upper chamber of his. We made our beasts kneel at its foot while he watched us. We proclaimed, ‘There is no god but Allah, and Allah is Most Great,’ and by Allah the chamber shook until it seemed like a date-cluster whipped by the wind. He sent word: ‘You are not permitted to raise your voices with your religion over us.’ Then he summoned us to enter. We found him reclining on a couch, surrounded by his Roman patricians. Everything in his audience-hall was of finest quality, all around him draped in red, and he himself wore red garments. They drew near him, and he laughed, saying, ‘What harm would it have done you to greet me with your own greeting?’
“There was beside him a man eloquent in Arabic, very talkative. We replied, ‘Our greeting among ourselves is not lawful for you, and your greeting is not lawful for us to address you with.’ He asked, ‘What is your greeting among yourselves?’ We answered, ‘Peace be upon you.’ He said, ‘And how do you greet your own ruler?’ We said, ‘With that same greeting.’ He asked, ‘And how does he reply to you?’ We said, ‘With the same.’ He then asked, ‘What is the greatest utterance you pronounce?’ We said, ‘There is no god but Allah, and Allah…’