when one day he came and perched on her wall. She said, “Why do you not come in?” He replied, “A prophet has been sent who has forbidden fornication.” The woman then reported what her jinn-companion had told her, and this was the first piece of news circulated in Medina.

Yahya ibn Yusuf al-Zammi said: ʿUbayd Allah ibn ʿAmr narrated to us, from ʿAbd Allah ibn Muhammad ibn ʿAqil, from Jabir, who said: “The first report to reach Medina about the Prophet ﷺ was that a woman had a familiar spirit. It came to her in the shape of a bird and alighted on the wall of their house. The woman said to it, ‘Come down.’ It answered, ‘No. A prophet has arisen in Mecca who has forbidden fornication; we are no longer allowed to remain.’”

There are several traditions on this topic, but the majority of their chains of transmission are weak.