- ʿAbd Allāh narrated to us; ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Ṣāliḥ al-Azdī narrated to us; Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAyyāsh narrated to us, from Muḥammad ibn Muhājir al-Anṣārī, from al-ʿAbbās ibn Sālim al-Lakhmī, who said:
ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz sent for Abū Salām the Abyssinian, having him conveyed by the state post. When Abū Salām arrived, he said, “You have put me to hardship—or rather, you have worn out my legs!” ʿUmar replied, “That was not our purpose. It has simply reached me that you possess Thawbān’s report about the Basin, and I wanted to hear it directly from you.”
Abū Salām said: I heard Thawbān say: I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say, “My Basin stretches from Aden to Amman al-Balqāʾ. Its water is whiter than milk and sweeter than honey, and its cups are as numerous as the stars in the sky. Whoever drinks from it once will never thirst again. The first people to reach it will be the destitute Emigrants.” ⦗12⦘
ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb commented, “They are those with disheveled hair and soiled clothes, who do not marry pampered women and to whom the gates of palaces are never opened.”
Upon hearing this, ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz said, “The palace doors have indeed been opened for me, and I have married pampered women. Therefore, from now on I will not oil my hair until it becomes unkempt, nor will I wash the garment that touches my body until it is grimy.”