and began to recite the Qur’an, whereupon many dark shapes surrounded him, screening him from me until I could no longer hear his voice. They then moved off, scattering like shreds of cloud drifting away, until only a small band of them remained. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ finished with them at daybreak, went aside to relieve himself, and then returned to me saying, “What has become of the little band?” I answered, “They are over there, O Messenger of Allah.” He picked up a bone and some droppings and gave them to them as provisions, after which he forbade anyone to cleanse himself with a bone or with droppings. Al-Nasā’ī transmitted this on the authority of Yūnus.

Sulaymān al-Taymī narrated from Abū ʿUthmān al-Nahdī that Ibn Masʿūd once caught sight of some Zutt (an Indian people) on a certain road and asked, “Who are these?” They replied, “They are the Zutt.” He said, “I have never seen anyone who resembled the jinn on the Night of the Jinn more than they do; they had drawn their garments up between their legs, each following the other.” Authentic.

It is said, “A man istathfara with his garment” when he takes its hem from between his thighs up to his belt and tucks it in. The same term is used of a dog when it puts its tail between its legs, and from it comes the instruction to a menstruating woman: istathfirī.

ʿUthmān ibn ʿAmr ibn Fāris narrated from Mustamir ibn al-Rayyān, from Abū al-Jawzāʾ, from Ibn Masʿūd, who said: “I went with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ on the Night of the Jinn until we reached al-Ḥajūn. He drew a line round me, then advanced toward them. They crowded around him, and one of their leaders, called Wardān, said, ‘I will drive them away from you.’ He replied, ‘No one can shield me from Allah.’”

Zuhayr ibn Muḥammad al-Tamīmī narrated from Ibn al-Munkadir, from Jābir, who said: “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ recited Sūrah al-Raḥmān, then said, ‘Why do I find you silent? The jinn responded better than you. Every time I recited to them the verse, “Which, then, of your Lord’s favors will you both deny?” (al-Raḥmān 55:13), they answered, “We deny none of Your blessings, our Lord.”’”