and, with its seal still intact, he set it before the king and said, “This is a trust I leave with you; guard it well.”
The narrator added: The king arranged her journey stage by stage, saying, “Camp on such-and-such a day at such-and-such a place, and on such-and-such a day at such-and-such a place,” thus fixing a precise timetable for him (1).
Once they set out, however, the king’s daughter would pay him no heed: she halted wherever she wished, departed whenever she wished, and he did nothing more than protect her and sleep near her (2).
When he returned to the king, the people said, “All he ever did was sleep beside her.”
The king said to him, “You have disobeyed,” and resolved to kill him.
The man replied, “Return my trust to me.”
When it was handed back, he opened the casket and what lay inside was exposed—a surface as flat as the palm of a hand. News of this spread among the Children of Israel.
The narrator continued: A judge of theirs died, and they asked, “Whom shall we appoint in his place?”
They suggested “So-and-so,” but he refused. They persisted until he said, “Leave me to consider my case.”
He then applied something to his eyes until his sight was gone.
After that he took his seat on the bench. One night he rose and supplicated, saying, “O Allah, if what I have done is pleasing to You, then restore my form to the soundest state it has ever been.”
By morning Allah had restored his eyesight and his eyeballs better than before, and likewise his hand and his private parts (3).
Ahmad ibn Salāmah informed us of this, from Abū al-Makārim al-Taymī; Abū ʿAlī told us; Abū Nuʿaym told us; Abū Aḥmad—that is, al-ʿAssāl—in his book told us; Mūsā ibn Isḥāq told us; ʿUthmān ibn Abī Shaybah told us; Sharīk narrated it, and he mentioned the story.
Through the same chain back to Abū Nuʿaym, Sulaymān ibn Aḥmad related to us; ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz related to us; Abū Ghassān related to us; Isrāʾīl (4) related to us, from ʿAbd al-Aʿlā, from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Laylā, who said:
“I was sitting with ʿUmar when a rider arrived claiming that he had sighted the crescent—the crescent of Shawwāl. ʿUmar announced, ‘People, break your fast.’
He then went over to a ʿuss (5) of water,