Ḥabīb transmitted—Abū Dāwūd told us, Abū ʿAwānah told us, Abū Bishr on the authority of Saʿīd; and he also related, through his chain, from al-Rabīʿ ibn Anas who said:

“The governor of Yemen wished to give refuge to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. Al-Walīd then came to him and alleged, ‘Muḥammad is a sorcerer.’ After him ʿĀṣ ibn Wāʾil arrived and reported that Muḥammad had merely learned the legends of the ancients. Another visitor claimed that he was a soothsayer; a fourth maintained that he was a poet; and yet another said, ‘He is mad.’ So Allah destroyed them all—each of them was struck by a punishment different from that of his companion, and al-Rabīʿ went on to detail the nature of their punishments.”

A similar account is transmitted from ʿIkrimah.