until it flung him against the twin mountains of Tayy’.

The son of al-ʿAlamāʾ, the ruler of Aylah, then came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ with a letter and presented him with a white mule. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ wrote a reply to him and, in return, presented him with a striped cloak.

We continued on until we reached Wādī al-Qurā. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ asked the woman about her orchard—how much fruit it had yielded. She replied, “Ten wasqs.” He said, “I intend to hasten on, so whoever wishes to hurry with me, let him do so.” We set out until we could see Madinah. He said, “This is Ṭābah (Madinah), and that is Uhud—a mountain that loves us and we love it.” Muslim records this report in a fuller form, and al-Bukhārī has a similar version.

Ibn Isḥāq said: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Bakr related to me, from ʿAbbās ibn Sahl, that when the Messenger of Allah ﷺ passed by al-Ḥijr they drew water from its well. When evening came, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Do not drink its water or use it for ablution. Any dough you have mixed with it, feed to the camels. And let none of you go out tonight unless he has a companion with him.” The people complied, all but two men of Banū Sāʿidah: one went out to relieve himself and the other to look for his camel. The one who went to relieve himself was strangled on the spot, while the other was carried off by the wind until it cast him upon the twin mountains of Tayy’. When this was reported to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ he said, “Did I not forbid you?” He then prayed for the man who had been injured while relieving himself, and he was cured. As for the other, he caught up with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ after the Prophet had returned from Tabūk. (This is a mursal and objectionable report.)

Ibn Wahb said: Muʿāwiyah narrated to me, from Saʿīd ibn Ghazwān, from his father, that he halted at Tabūk while on pilgrimage and there found a paralysed man. He asked him about his story, and the man said, “I shall tell you something—do not repeat it as long as you know I am alive. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ camped at Tabūk beside a palm-tree and said, ‘This is our qiblah,’ then he prayed facing it. I approached, and I…"