As for the soothsayers, each of them had a companion from the devils who disclosed to him many unseen matters—news the demon had snatched by eavesdropping on the heavenly assembly. The soothsayers would then mix truth with falsehood, exactly as stated in the sound hadith recorded by al-Bukhari and others, in which the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—said:

“The angels descend into the cloud-banks—namely, the clouds—and mention the affairs that have been decreed in heaven. The devils steal a hearing, convey it to the soothsayers, and the latter add to it one hundred lies of their own.”

Muslim likewise relates, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās—may Allah be pleased with them both:

“While the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, was sitting with a group of the Ansar, a shooting star flared brightly across the sky. The Prophet asked, ‘What would you say about such a sight in the pre-Islamic days when you saw it?’ They replied, ‘We would say: a great man has died or a great man has been born.’ The Messenger of Allah said, ‘It is not hurled because anyone dies or lives. Rather, when our Lord—blessed and exalted is He—decrees a matter, the bearers of the Throne glorify Him; then the inhabitants of the heaven beneath them glorify Him, and so on, one heaven after another, until their glorification reaches the dwellers of this lowest heaven. Then the people of the seventh heaven ask the bearers of the Throne, “What has our Lord said?” They inform them, and each heaven seeks confirmation from the one above it until the news reaches the heaven of the world. At that point the devils snatch what they can of the report and are pursued—meteors are hurled at them—yet they manage to fling it down to their followers.’”