I will divert those who are looking for you.’

So the Prophet supplicated to Allah, Suraqa was saved, and he turned back; whenever he met anyone he would say, ‘You have no need to go farther—there is nothing to be found ahead,’ and he sent every last searcher away.

In another wording: ‘His horse sank into the ground up to its belly, so he jumped off and cried, “O Muhammad, I know this is your doing; beseech Allah to release me from what I am in, and I give you my word that I shall mislead those who are behind me.”’

Al-Bukhārī and Muslim also relate—through Ibn Shihāb, in Suraqa’s own narration—that he said:

‘Envoys from the idolaters of Quraysh came to us, offering as a reward for the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, and for Abū Bakr the full blood-money of each of them to whoever killed or captured either one. While I was sitting in the gathering of my clan, the Banū Mudlij, a man from among them came up, stood over us as we sat, and said, “Suraqa, I have just seen some dark silhouettes along the shoreline….”’