Ibn Luhayʿah said: Abū al-Aswad narrated to us, from ʿUrwah, a report to the same effect.

Yūnus related from Ibn Isḥāq: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Sahl al-Ḥārithī told me on the authority of Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh: Marhab the Jew came out of the fortress of Khaybar, fully armed, chanting lines of verse and calling, “Who will duel with me?”

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ asked, “Who will take him on?” Muhammad ibn Maslamah replied, “I will. By Allah, I am the wronged avenger—yesterday they killed my brother.” The Prophet said, “Go to him. O Allah, help him against his foe.”

When the two approached each other, an ʿUmariyyah tree stood between them. Each man tried to shelter behind it from his opponent; whenever one of them took cover, the other hacked away whatever lay between him and his target. At last they faced one another in the open—the tree now a bare trunk, stripped of every branch.

Marhab charged Muhammad and struck him, but Muhammad warded the blow with his shield; the sword bit into the shield and stuck fast. Muhammad then struck him until he killed him. It is said that during the encounter Muhammad chanted:

“Khaybar well knows that I am keen-edged—
Gentle when I wish, yet lethal poison when I will.”

Marhab’s own chant had been:

“Khaybar well knows that I am Marhab,
Armoured and ready, a seasoned champion.
When lions advance in flaming wrath I meet them,
While they shrink back from the conqueror’s charge.
At times I thrust, and at times I strike;
My sanctuary—no intruder dares draw near.”

Al-Wāqidī said: Muḥammad ibn al-Faḍl ibn ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Rāfiʿ ibn Khadīj narrated to me, from his father, from Jābir; Zakarīyyā ibn Zayd narrated to me, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Sufyān, from his father, from Salamah ibn Salamah; and Mujammaʿ ibn Yaʿqūb narrated to me, from his father, from Mujammaʿ ibn Jāriyah. All of them said: Muhammad ibn Maslamah was the one who killed Marhab.