Kilab. She was a jurist and a learned woman—Umm Mansur al-Qurashiyyah, al-ʿAbdariyyah, the Meccan, al-Ḥajibiyyah.
It is said that she actually saw the Prophet ﷺ, but al-Daraqutni judged this report to be weak (1).
Her father was among those who embraced Islam at the Conquest of Mecca.
She transmits a hadith from the Prophet ﷺ that appears in the Sunan of Abu Dawud and al-Nasaʾi, and this is counted among the strongest of the mursal reports.
She also narrated from ʿAʾishah, Umm Habibah, and Umm Salamah—Mothers of the Believers.
Those who reported from her include her son Mansur ibn ʿAbd al-Rahman al-Ḥajibī; her grandson Muhammad ibn ʿImran al-Ḥajibī; al-Hasan ibn Muslim ibn Yannāq; Ibrahim ibn Muhajir; Qatadah; Yaʿqub ibn ʿAtaʾ ibn Abi Rabah; ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-Rahman ibn Muḥayṣin al-Sahmī, the Qur’an-reciter; and several others.
Yahya ibn Maʿin said, “Ibn Jurayj did not hear directly from her; he merely lived during her time.”
= al-Lughat 1/2/349; Tahdhib al-Kamal, no. 1686; Tarikh al-Islam 3/258; Tadhhib al-Tahdhib 4/264 A; al-Aqd al-Thamin 8/258; al-Isaba 4/348; Tahdhib al-Tahdhib 12/430; Khulasa Tadhhib al-Kamal, 424.
(1) Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani rejects this opinion in al-Isaba 4/348, saying: “Those who claim that she narrated nothing are wide of the mark, for her report is established in Sahih al-Bukhari, albeit in muallaq (suspended) form, 3/171, Book of Funerals: ‘Aban b. Salih, from al-Hasan b. Muslim, from Safiyya bt. Shayba, who said: I heard the Prophet ﷺ preaching in the year of the Conquest: “O people, Allah declared Makka inviolable on the day He created the heavens and the earth …”’.
Ibn Majah (no. 3109) supplies the same tradition with a continuous chain.
Ibn Mandah also transmits, through Muhammad b. Jaʿfar b. al-Zubayr – ʿAbd Allah b. ʿAbd Allah b. Abi Thawr – Safiyya bt. Shayba: “By Allah, it is as though I can still see the Messenger of Allah ﷺ when he entered the Kaʿba …”.
Abu Dawud (no. 1878) records, via Ibn Ishaq, who said: Muhammad b. Jaʿfar b. al-Zubayr told me, from ʿUbayd Allah b. ʿAbd Allah b. Abi Thawr, from Safiyya: “When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ felt secure in Makka during the Conquest, he performed tawaf on a camel, touching the Corner with the staff in his hand, while I was watching him.”
Al-Mizzi states that the chain is hasan (sound). See also Fath al-Bari 9/207.