24 – Bishr ibn Muʿādh al-ʿAqadī narrated to us; ʿUthmān ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd ibn Lāḥiq narrated to us; Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Yaʿqūb, from Ḥumayd ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Ḥimyārī, who said: Ḥanẓalah ibn Ḍirār—he had lived during the pre-Islamic period, then accepted Islam—told me:

“Indeed I once found myself in the company of a king from among the Arab kings who was called al-Aswad, at a time when no prophet had come to us and no Qur’an had been revealed. One day he said to me, ‘O Ḥanẓalah, draw closer so I may shield myself behind you from the rabble and we can speak together. No one has ever built a city or dwelt ⦗32⦘ in a city but that he would wish to be in my position. Yet, by Allah, I would rather be a servant owned by a mutilated Abyssinian slave and be saved from the terror of the Day of Resurrection.’”