“Keep away from the man’s she-camel; instead, take which­ever of my wild bulls you please.
Something from you has shown itself that I never imagined—could you not have honoured our kinship and the pledge of safety I gave? (1)
You lift a poisoned spear against her—ruin upon your deed, O Abā al-Ghaffār! (2)
Were it not for modesty, and the fact that your people are my neighbours, you would have learned the truths I could unveil about you.”

He said: The youth answered him, reciting:
“Would you raise yourself and cast down our repute, when no calamity has touched us, O Abā al-ʿAyzār? (3)
Never among them was there a true leader in the past; surely the excellent are but the sons of the excellent.
So pursue your aim, O Muʿakkabir—for the one who granted protection was Muhalhil ibn Ithār. (4)”

He continued: While the two of them were disputing, three wild bulls suddenly appeared. The elder said to the youth, “Up, nephew! Take whichever one you wish as a ransom for the she-camel of my human neighbour.” The youth rose, seized one of the bulls, and went away.

When the elder turned to me he said, “Good man, whenever you descend into a valley and fear its terrors, say: ‘I seek refuge in God, the Lord of Muḥammad, from the terrors of this valley,’ and do not seek the protection of anyone from among the jinn, for their authority has ceased.”

I asked, “Who is this Muḥammad?”
He replied, “An Arab Prophet—neither Eastern nor Western—sent on a Monday.”
I said, “And where does he live?”
He said, “In Yathrib, the land of palm-trees.”

At first light I mounted my she-camel and rode hard until I burst into the city. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ saw me, told me my story before I had uttered a word, invited me to Islam, and I embraced the faith.

Saʿīd ibn Jubayr said: We used to think that it was about him that Allah Most High revealed, “There were men from mankind who would seek refuge with men from the jinn, but they only increased them in oppression.” (6) [Q 72:6].

Al-Kharāʾiṭī also narrated (5) through Ibrāhīm ibn Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Ḥabībah (6), from Dāwūd ibn al-Ḥuṣayn (7), from ʿIkrimah, from Ibn ʿAbbās, from ʿAlī, who said: “When you are in a valley and fear the predators, say, ‘I seek refuge in Dānīyāl and al-Jubb from the evil of the lion.’”

And al-Balawī (8) reported—through ʿUmārah ibn Zayd, from Ibrāhīm ibn Saʿd, from Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq, who said: Yahyā ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ḥārith told me, from his father, from Ibn ʿAbbās—the story of ʿAlī’s combat with the jinn at the well of Dhāt al-ʿAlam near al-Juḥfah when