When we finally told her what had happened, she said, “Did you fear that Satan might harm him? No, by Allah—Satan has no power over him. By Allah, my son is destined for a tremendous affair. Shall I not relate to you his story?”
“We would indeed like to hear it,” we replied.
She said, “When I conceived him, I never carried a pregnancy lighter than his. While I was expecting him, I saw in a dream a light come forth from me that illuminated the palaces of Syria. Then, when I delivered him, he emerged in a manner no newborn ever does: he came down onto his hands with his head raised toward the sky. So leave him with me.”
This report is transmitted through another chain as well, and it is one of the famous accounts widely cited by the scholars of Sīrah and Maghāzī.
Al-Wāqidī related: “Muʿādh ibn Muḥammad told me—on the authority of ʿAṭāʾ ibn Abī Rabāḥ, from Ibn ʿAbbās—that Halimah went out looking for the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) after noticing that the lambs were resting from the midday heat. She found him with his sister and asked, ‘In this scorching sun?’ His sister replied, ‘Mother, my brother has felt no heat. I saw a cloud shading him; whenever he stops it stops, and whenever he walks it moves along with him until he reached this place.’”
Ibn Isḥāq said: “Thawr ibn Yazīd told me, from Khālid ibn Maʿdān, from the Companions of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) that they asked him, ‘Tell us about yourself.’ He replied:
‘Yes. I am the answer to my father Abraham’s supplication and the good news announced by Jesus. When my mother was carrying me she saw a light emerge from her that lit up the palaces of Syria. I was nursed among Banū Saʿd ibn Bakr. While I was with a flock of ours, two men dressed in white came to me, each carrying a golden basin filled with snow. They laid me down, split open my belly, removed my heart and cleft it, took out a black clot and cast it away, then washed my heart and my belly with that snow until they had completely cleansed them before restoring them as they were. One of them said to the other, “Weigh him against ten of his community,” so he weighed me against ten and I outweighed them. Then he said, “Weigh him against a hundred of his community,” so he weighed me against a hundred and I outweighed them. Then he said, “Weigh him against a thousand of his community,” so he weighed me against a thousand and I outweighed them. Finally he said, “Leave him; if you weighed him against his entire community, he would outweigh them all.”’
This chain of transmission is sound and strong.
Al-Ḥāfiẓ Abū Nuʿaym also narrated this story at great length in his Dalāʾil through the chain of ʿUmar ibn aṣ-Ṣubḥ—who is Abū Nuʿaym—from Thawr ibn Yazīd, from Makḥūl, from Shaddād ibn Aws, but ʿUmar ibn aṣ-Ṣubḥ is discarded as unreliable and considered a liar.