171 — Ahmad ibn Ibrāhīm narrated to us: Sa‘īd ibn ‘Āmir narrated to us: Abū al-Aswad narrated to us, from Ibn ‘Awn, who said, “One day, while we were in Byzantine territory, I suddenly noticed that the people’s faces had changed. I asked a man beside me, ‘What is this that I see on the people’s faces?’” He replied, “Do you not see the enemy?” I looked, and there was the mountain, black with Byzantine troops.

Ibn ‘Awn said, “We know how unwelcome death is. Yet beside me was a man on whose face I saw none of what I saw on the faces of the others. He had two apples in his hand and was turning them over. Then one of the enemy came forward and challenged someone to single combat. A Muslim went out to face him, but the Byzantine charged and stabbed him. The man with the two apples threw them down, went out to face the Byzantine, charged him, and stabbed him. He then returned to his apples, picked them up, and resumed turning them over. I asked a man beside me, ‘Who is this?’ He replied, ‘This is al-Battāl.’”