Abū Nuʿaym said (1): “ʿUmar ibn Muḥammad narrated to us; Ibrāhīm ibn al-Sindī narrated to us; al-Naḍr ibn Salamah narrated to us; Ismāʿīl ibn Qays ibn Saʿd ibn Zayd ibn Thābit narrated to us, from Umm Saʿd bint Saʿd ibn al-Rabīʿ, who said: I heard Zayd ibn Thābit say:
‘The rabbis of the Jews of Banū Qurayẓah and Banū al-Naḍīr used to speak of the description of the Prophet ﷺ. When the red star rose, they declared, “He is the Prophet; there will be no prophet after him. His name is Aḥmad, and his place of migration is Yathrib.” Yet when the Messenger of Allah ﷺ actually came to Madinah they denied him, envied him, and disbelieved.’
The ḥāfiẓ Abū Nuʿaym has cited this story elsewhere in his book (2) through other chains as well—praise be to Allah.
Abū Nuʿaym also said (3): “Abū Muḥammad ibn Ḥibbān narrated to us; Abū Bakr ibn Abī ʿĀṣim narrated to us; Wahb ibn Munabbih narrated to us; Khālid narrated, from Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr, from Abū Salamah and Yaḥyā ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Ḥāṭib, from Usāmah ibn Zayd, who said:
‘Zayd ibn ʿAmr ibn Nufayl related: The Mubadhān—a learned priest among the scholars of Syria—told me, “A prophet has appeared in your land, or is about to appear; his star has already risen. Go back, believe in him, and follow him.”’
[Section:] The shaking of the imperial hall (4), the fall of its battlements, the extinction of the sacred fires, the dream of the Mubadhān, and other portents.
Al-Ḥāfiẓ Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar ibn Sahl al-Kharāʾiṭī said in his book “Hawātif al-Jinān” (5): “ʿAlī ibn Ḥarb narrated to us; Abū Ayyūb Yaʿlā ibn ʿImrān—of the family of Jarīr ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Bajalī—narrated to us; Makhzūm ibn Hāniʾ al-Makhzūmī narrated to me, from his father—who was one hundred and fifty years old—who said:
‘On the very night the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was born, the palace of Chosroes shook (6) and fourteen of its parapets collapsed; the Persian sacred fire went out, though it had not been extinguished for a thousand years; Lake Sāwah (7) receded; and the Mubadhān (8) saw unruly camels leading dappled horses that had crossed the Tigris.’”