“Welcome to you and to the One who sent you. I bear witness that he is the Messenger of God and that he is the very one of whom Jesus gave glad tidings. Were it not for the sovereignty with which I have been entrusted, I would go to him myself and kiss his sandals. Stay in my land for as long as you wish.”

He then ordered that food and clothing be provided for us and said, “Return these two men their gift.”

ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ was a short man, while ʿUmārah was handsome. The two of them had come by sea. They drank together—and ʿAmr’s wife was with him. When they had drunk, ʿUmārah said to ʿAmr, “Tell your wife to kiss me.”

ʿAmr replied, “Have you no shame?” ʿUmārah thereupon seized ʿAmr and threw him into the sea. ʿAmr kept pleading with ʿUmārah until he brought him back aboard the ship, yet ʿAmr held a grudge against him for what had happened.

Later ʿAmr said to the Negus, “Whenever you leave, (1) ʿUmārah goes after the women of your household (2).” The Negus sent for ʿUmārah, blew upon his private parts, and the man bolted off to roam with the wild beasts.

Al-Ḥāfiẓ al-Bayhaqī likewise transmitted this in Dalāʾil (3) through the chain of Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥasan ibn Salām al-Sawwāq from ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Mūsā, and he reproduced it with his isnād up to the words: “He ordered that food and clothing be provided for us.”

He said: This isnād is sound, and its apparent sense indicates that Abū Mūsā was in Mecca and that he departed with Jaʿfar ibn Abī Ṭālib to Abyssinia. The sound report, however, is that related by Yazīd ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Burdah from his grandfather Abū Burdah, from Abū Mūsā: that news of the Messenger of God’s emigration reached them while they were in Yemen, so they set out as emigrants—about fifty-odd men—aboard a ship. Their vessel carried them to the Negus in Abyssinia, where they met Jaʿfar ibn Abī Ṭālib and his companions (4). Jaʿfar (5) told him to stay, so they remained there until they joined the Messenger of God, peace and blessings be upon him, at the time of Khaybar.

He said: Abū Mūsā witnessed what passed between Jaʿfar and the Negus and therefore reported it. He added: It is likely that the narrator erred when he said, “The Messenger of God, peace and blessings be upon him, ordered us to set out”; and God knows best.

Al-Bukhārī likewise recorded it in the chapter on the migration to Abyssinia (6): “Muḥammad ibn al-ʿAlāʾ narrated to us; Abū Usāmah narrated to us; Burayd (7) ibn ʿAbd Allāh narrated to us from Abū Burdah, from Abū Mūsā, who said: ‘News of the Prophet’s departure reached us while we were in Yemen, so we boarded a ship. Our vessel brought us to the Negus in Abyssinia, where we met Jaʿfar ibn Abī Ṭālib, may God be pleased with him. We stayed with him until we arrived and met the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, when he had conquered Khaybar. The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said:

“You, the people of the ship, have performed two migrations.”’

And so on.”