ʿAṭāʾ al-Khurasānī said:

When the Muslims reached Bayt al-Maqdis (Jerusalem), the city’s leaders said to them, “We have agreed among ourselves to conclude a peace treaty with you. You already know the stature of Jerusalem and that it is the mosque to which your Prophet was taken on the Night Journey. We would like your ruler—namely, the caliph ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb—to be the one who formally receives its surrender.”

The Muslims therefore sent a delegation, and the Byzantines sent another delegation alongside them until they arrived in Medina, where they began asking for the Commander of the Believers. The Byzantines said to their interpreter, “Whom are they looking for?” He replied, “The Commander of the Believers.” Their amazement grew, and they exclaimed, “This is the man who defeated Persia and Byzantium, seized the treasures of Chosroes and Caesar, yet he has no residence by which he is recognized! With this simplicity he subdued the nations?”

They eventually found him lying on the ground asleep in the heat of the day, which only deepened their astonishment. After reading Abū ʿUbaydah’s letter, ʿUmar set out and reached Jerusalem, where twelve thousand Byzantine soldiers and fifty thousand local inhabitants were gathered. He granted them terms of peace, one clause of which stipulated that no Jew would be allowed to enter among them. He then entered the mosque and found