in Madinah and said, “I am going to ask you about three matters that only a prophet can know: What is the first of the portents of the Hour? What will be the first food the people of Paradise eat? And why is it that a child at times resembles his mother and at other times his father?”

He replied, “Gabriel has just informed me of them.”

ʿAbdullah said, “That is the angel the Jews regard as their enemy.”

He continued, “The first of the portents of the Hour is a fire that will drive the people together from the East to the West. The first food the people of Paradise will eat is the extra lobe of a fish’s liver. As for the child: when the man’s fluid outstrips the woman’s, the child takes after his father; when the woman’s fluid outstrips the man’s, the child takes after his mother.”

ʿAbdullah then declared, “I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, and I bear witness that you are the Messenger of Allah.”

He added, “Messenger of Allah, the Jews are a people given to slander; if they learn of my embracing Islam before you ask them about me, they will malign me in your presence.”

The Jews then came, and the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—asked them, “What sort of man is ʿAbdullah among you?”

They answered, “He is the best of us and the son of the best of us, our leader and the son of our leader, our scholar and the son of our scholar.”

He asked, “What would you say if ʿAbdullah were to accept Islam?”

They replied, “May Allah protect him from that.”

ʿAbdullah thereupon came out to them and said, “I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, and I bear witness…"