1159 – Ibn ʿAbbās (may Allah be pleased with them) said, “Dabb —the spiny-tailed lizard—was eaten at the table of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him.” Agreed upon. (1)

Vocabulary of the ḥadīth
– Dabb: pronounced with an open dād and a doubled bāʾ; its plurals are dubāb and adubb. It is a reptile belonging to the monitor-lizard family, stout-bodied and rough-skinned, with a broad, jointed tail. It inhabits the deserts of Arabia.
Al-Wasīṭ states: “The dabb is a reptile of the monitor-lizard order, thick-bodied and rough-skinned, with a broad, scaly, jointed tail. It is common in the deserts of the Arab lands.”
The Simplified Encyclopedia adds: “The dabb is a herbivore; it runs swiftly and climbs with agility.”
Al-Damīrī writes: “The dabb is a land animal resembling the waral (large monitor lizard); its plurals are dubāb and adubb, and the female is called dabbah.”
Ibn Khālawayh reports: “The dabb does not drink water, lives for seven hundred years, never loses a tooth, and has great tenacity of life: after being slaughtered it can remain alive for a whole night, and if thrown into the fire it will still move.”

Points derived from the ḥadīth
1 – The complete wording of the report cited in this chapter is that recorded by al-Bukhārī (5391) and Muslim (1946) from Ibn ʿAbbās, through Khālid ibn al-Walīd, who related that he entered together with the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, upon