My father narrated to me, saying, “ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz told me; Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz related to us, from al-Zuhrī, from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Anas al-Sulamī, from al-ʿAbbās ibn Mirdās, that he was once raiding while tending his milch camels at midday. Suddenly a white ostrich-like creature appeared before him, and upon it sat a rider whose garments were as white as milk.
The rider called out:
“O ʿAbbās ibn Mirdās! Do you not see that the sky has withdrawn its sentinels, that warfare has drunk its final draught, that horses have laid aside their saddles, and that the Religion has descended with righteousness and piety—on Monday night turning into Tuesday—borne by the owner of the she-camel al-Qaṣwā’?”
Al-ʿAbbās continued: “I returned in terror, shaken by what I had seen and heard, until I came to an idol of ours called al-Ḍamār, which we worshipped and from whose hollow we would hear a voice. I swept the ground around it, rubbed myself against it, and then smashed it. At that moment a crier from within the idol proclaimed:
Say to every clan of Sulaym:
Al-Ḍamār has perished, the people of the Mosque have prevailed!
Al-Ḍamār has perished—once he was worshipped—
Before the prayer led by the Prophet Muḥammad.
Indeed, the one who inherited prophethood and guidance
After the son of Mary is a rightly guided man from Quraysh.
“I rushed away in fear until I reached my people. I told them the whole story and conveyed the news. Then I set out with three hundred men of my clan, the Banū Ḥārithah, to the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, who was in Madinah. We entered the mosque, and when the Messenger of Allah saw me …"
(1) In the printed edition it reads “ḥaddathanā”, which is confirmed by the ḥ manuscripts and by al-Ḥawātif.
(2) The printed edition reads “ya‘rr”, but the reading is preserved in the ḥ manuscripts, al-Ḥawātif, and Ibn ʿAsākir’s Tārīkh. In another report in Ibn ʿAsākir (p. 238) it appears as “bighumra”. Ghumra is a location in the Hijaz on the road to Mecca.
(3) “Ahlās”: plural of ḥils, i.e. the padding placed on a beast’s back beneath the saddle, the pommel (qatb), and the stirrup. Al-Mu‘jam al-Wasīṭ, s.v. ḥils.
(4) In the printed edition it reads “alladhī”, whereas the reading is preserved in the ḥ manuscripts, al-Ḥawātif, and Ibn ʿAsākir’s Tārīkh.
(5) The term “al-Quṣwā” is written with an alif and no hamza to maintain the rhyme (sajʿ), as in the ḥ manuscripts. Al-Quṣwā was a title applied to the Prophet’s she-camel (nāqa), literally “the she-camel with a clipped ear,” though this was not her proper name. Some report that her ear was actually clipped. See al-Nihāya (4: 75, s.v. qusw). The phrase appears corrupted in al-Ḥawātif and in al-Kharā’itī’s report transmitted by Ibn ʿAsākir; however, Ibn ʿAsākir also records (p. 239) a variant from Sulaymān b. al-Ḥasan via ʿAmr b. ʿUthmān reading “ma‘a ṣāḥib al-nāqa al-Quṣwā”. The same variant appears in the narration of Abū Naʿīm cited below, which resolves the apparent confusion. And Allah knows best.
(6) The term appears in the ḥ manuscripts, the printed edition, al-Ḥawātif, and Ibn ʿAsākir’s Tārīkh as “al-ḍamād” (with heavy dāl), attested in Sīrat al-Nabawiyya, al-Rawḍ al-Anf, al-Mu‘jam al-Buldān (3: 462), and al-Tāj s.v. ḍamr. Al-Suhaylī (in al-Rawḍ) and Yāqūt vocalize it as ḍamār (fa‘āl pattern), whereas the author of al-Tāj records it as ḍimār (on the analogy of feminine nouns such as ḥadhām, raqāsh). According to al-Suhaylī, this feminine pattern is reserved for certain terms in Hijāzī and Banū Tamīm dialects, due to the final rā’, while words without final rā’, like khudām and raqāsh, follow Arabic dialectal usage—cf. Sibawayh, al-Kitāb (3: 278–281; ed. Hārūn; 2: 41, Bulāq).
(7) The verses in the earlier sources exhibit variant readings in certain words.