Another source (1) relates on the authority of Wahb ibn Munabbih that, after Nebuchadnezzar had ruined Bayt al-Maqdis and kept the Children of Israel in abject subjection for seven years, he saw in a dream an awesome vision that filled him with dread. He therefore assembled the priests and soothsayers and asked them about the dream. They said, “Let the king recount the dream to us so that we may tell him its interpretation.”
He replied, “I have forgotten it. If you do not tell me what it was within three days, I shall kill you to the last man.” They departed fearful and anxious because of his threat.
Daniel—peace be upon him—heard of this while he was in prison and said to the jailer, “Go to him and say, ‘There is a man here who knows the dream you saw and its interpretation.’” The jailer went and informed the king, who then summoned him. When Daniel entered, he did not prostrate himself before the king. Nebuchadnezzar asked, “What stopped you from prostrating to me?” He answered, “God has granted me knowledge and instructed me, and He has commanded me not to prostrate to anyone but Him.”
Nebuchadnezzar said, “I admire those who keep faith with their lords in their covenants; so tell me my dream.” Daniel said, “You saw an enormous statue: its feet were planted on the earth while its head reached the sky. Its upper part was of gold, its middle of silver, its lower portion of copper; its shanks were of iron, and its feet of clay. While you were looking at it, admiring its beauty and flawless workmanship, God cast a stone from heaven at it. The stone struck the crown of its head and ground it to dust; its gold, silver, copper, iron, and clay mingled so completely that, had mankind and jinn combined to separate one part from another, they would have been unable to do so. You then watched the stone that had been cast: it grew, swelled, and spread until it filled the whole earth, so that you could see nothing but the stone and the sky.”
Nebuchadnezzar said, “You have spoken the truth! That is exactly the dream I saw. What is its interpretation?” Daniel replied, “The statue represents various nations—early, middle, and late. The stone cast at the statue is a religion with which God will strike those nations in the last days and make it triumph over them. God will send an unlettered Prophet from among the Arabs, and through him He will subdue nations and religions, just as you saw the stone subdue the components of the statue. He will prevail over religions and peoples as the stone prevailed over the whole earth. Through him God will purge truth of dross, eradicate falsehood, guide the misguided, teach the unlettered, strengthen the weak, honor the humiliated, and grant victory to the oppressed.”
Wahb related the remainder of the story, including Nebuchadnezzar’s freeing of the Children of Israel at the hands of Daniel—peace be upon him.
Al-Wāqidī, with his chains of transmission, also narrated from al-Mughīrah ibn Shuʿbah, in the account of his embassy to al-Muqawqis, ruler of Alexandria, how he asked him about the characteristics of the Messenger of God ﷺ—a query similar to Heraclius’s questioning of Abū Sufyān Ṣakhr ibn Ḥarb. He reported that al-Muqawqis asked the Christian bishops in their churches about the description of the Messenger of God ﷺ, and they informed him of it. It is a lengthy account preserved by ḥāfiẓ Abū Nuʿaym in al-Dalāʾil (2).
Moreover, it is authentically recorded in the Ṣaḥīḥ that the Messenger of God ﷺ passed by a Jewish study-house (3) and said, “O community of Jews, accept Islam, for by Him in whose hand is my soul, you certainly find my description in your Scriptures …” and so forth.