A complete version of the report was also transmitted by ʿAlī ibn Ḥarb al-Ṭāʾī, who said: “Delhum ibn Yazīd narrated to us; he said: al-Qāsim ibn Suwayd narrated to us; he said: Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr al-Anṣārī narrated to us, from Ayyūb ibn Mūsā, who said: ʿUbādah ibn al-Ṣāmit used to relate this story, and he mentioned something similar.”

We were further informed by Imām Abū al-Faraj ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī ʿUmar, together with a number of others, through ʿAbd al-Wahhāb ibn ʿAlī al-Ṣūfī, who said: Fāṭimah bint Abī Ḥakīm al-Khubrī informed us; she said: ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥasan ibn al-Faḍl al-Kātib informed us; he said: Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Khālid al-Kātib read it to us from his own copy in the year 413 AH; he said: ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-ʿAbbās ibn al-Mughīrah al-Jawharī informed us; he said: Abū al-Ḥasan Aḥmad ibn Saʿīd al-Dimashqī narrated to us; he said: al-Zubayr ibn Bakkār narrated to us; he said: My uncle Muṣʿab ibn ʿAbd Allāh related to me, from my grandfather ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muṣʿab, from his father, from his grandfather, from ʿUbādah ibn al-Ṣāmit, who said:

“Abū Bakr dispatched me, together with a group of the Companions, to the emperor of the Byzantines to invite him to Islam. We set off on our mounts until we reached Damascus, where we found that Heraclius had appointed a certain Jabalah as his governor over Syria. We asked permission to see him, and it was granted. When he looked at us he disliked our presence and ordered that we be seated off to one side, while he himself sat on cushions raised high up to the ceiling. He then sent an envoy to speak with us and convey our words to him. We said, ‘By Allah, we will never speak to you through an intermediary.’

“The envoy returned and informed him, whereupon he came down from those lofty cushions to lower ones and gave us permission to approach. We drew near, called him to Allah and to Islam, but he would accept nothing good. He was dressed in black garments, so we said, ‘What are these hair-shirts?’ He replied, ‘I put them on as a vow, and I shall not remove them until I have expelled you from my land.’

“We said to him, ‘Hold your hand—do not be hasty! Would you even bar us from this very audience of yours? By Allah, we shall surely seize it—together with the kingdom of the Greatest King—for our Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, has informed us of this.’ He said, ‘Then you must be the Samrāʾ…’”