Al-Ashʿarī narrated that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “Many men have achieved perfection, but of women none achieved it except Āsiyah, the wife of Pharaoh, and Mary the daughter of ʿImrān; and the superiority of ʿĀʾishah over (all) women is like the superiority of tharīd over every other dish.”

Tharīd is bread together with meat, and it was considered the most noble fare of the Arabs, as one poet said:
Whenever bread is seasoned with meat—
by Allah’s trust, that is tharīd.

His statement (1) “and the excellence of ʿĀʾishah over women” may be taken in a general sense, (2) encompassing the women just mentioned as well as all others; or it may be understood in a restricted sense, (3) applying to women other than the two just named, so that the matter concerning her and them remains undecided, allowing for equality among them. Whoever prefers any one of them over the others must therefore rely on further proof (4). Allah knows best.

Section: His ﷺ marriages, after Khadījah—may Allah be pleased with her—to ʿĀʾishah, the daughter of al-Ṣiddīq, and to Sawdah bint Zamʿah—may Allah be pleased with them both.

The sound opinion is that ʿĀʾishah was married first, as will be seen. Al-Bukhārī, in the chapter on the Prophet’s marriage to ʿĀʾishah, (5) related: Muʿallā ibn Asad narrated to us; Wahīb narrated to us from Hishām ibn ʿUrwah, from his father, from ʿĀʾishah—may Allah be pleased with her—that the Prophet ﷺ said to her:

“I was shown you in a dream twice. I saw you wrapped in a piece of silk, and it was said, ‘This is your wife.’ I uncovered it and it was you, so I said, ‘If this is from Allah, He will bring it to pass.’”

Al-Bukhārī further said, in the chapter “Marrying Virgins,” (8): Ibn Abī Mulaykah reported that Ibn ʿAbbās said to ʿĀʾishah, “The Prophet ﷺ did not marry any virgin other than you.” He said: Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAbd Allāh narrated to us; my brother narrated to me, from Sulaymān ibn Bilāl, from Hishām ibn—