Umm Salama—may Allah be pleased with her—recounted: “By Allah, the Negus wept until his beard was drenched, and his bishops wept until their Scriptures were soaked, when they heard what had been recited to them.

Then the Negus said, ‘This message and what Moses brought issue from a single lamp-niche.’

He next turned to ʿAbd Allah ibn Abī Rabīʿah and ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ and declared, ‘Go on your way, for by Allah I shall never surrender them to the two of you—never at all.’

Umm Salama continued: “When they left his presence, ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ said, ‘By Allah, tomorrow I will go back to him, disparage them in his sight, and wipe them out completely.’

But ʿAbd Allah ibn Abī Rabīʿah—who was the more scrupulous of the two in his treatment of us—said to him, ‘Do not do that; they are our own kin, even though they have opposed us.’

He replied, ‘By Allah, I will inform him that they claim Jesus son of Mary is a servant.’

She went on: “The next morning he presented himself to the king and said, ‘Your Majesty, they say concerning…’”}