and ʿĀʾishah at that time was a girl of six years.

Khawlah then left and went in to Sawdah bint Zamʿah and said, “What countless good things and blessings Allah has bestowed upon you!”

Sawdah asked, “And what is that?”

Khawlah replied, “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ has sent me to ask for your hand on his behalf.”

Sawdah said, “I would be pleased. Go in to my father and mention it to him.” (He was an elderly man, advanced in years, who had stayed behind from the pilgrimage.)

Khawlah entered and greeted him with the pre-Islamic greeting. He said, “Who is this?”

She answered, “Khawlah bint Ḥakīm.”

He asked, “What brings you here?”

She said, “Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh has sent me to seek Sawdah’s hand.”

He replied, “A noble and honorable match. What does your companion say?”

She said, “She wishes it.”

He said, “Call her in to me.” So she called her.

He said, “My daughter, this woman claims that Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib has sent to propose to you. He is a noble and honorable suitor. Do you wish me to marry you to him?”

She said, “Yes.”

He said, “Invite him in to me.” The Messenger of Allah ﷺ came, and he married her to him.

Her brother ʿAbd ibn Zamʿah returned from the pilgrimage and began throwing dust upon his head. After he later embraced Islam he said, “By your life, how foolish I was the day I scattered dust on my head because the Messenger of Allah ﷺ had married Sawdah bint Zamʿah!”

ʿĀʾishah said: When we arrived in Madinah we lodged with Banū al-Ḥārith ibn al-Khazraj in the quarter of al-Shunḥ. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ came into our house, and men and women of the Anṣār gathered around him. My mother came to me while I was on a swing between two date-palms, being pushed back and forth. She brought me down from the swing—I had a little tuft of hair, which she smoothed—wiped my face with a little water, then led me by the hand until she stood me at the door while I was gasping for breath. When my breathing calmed, she took me in, and there was the Messenger of Allah ﷺ sitting on a couch in our house with men and women of the Anṣār around him. She seated me in his lap and said, “This is your household; may Allah bless you with them and bless them with you.”

The men and women rose and left. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ consummated the marriage with me in our own house. No camel was slaughtered for me, nor was a sheep butchered, until Saʿd ibn ʿUbādah sent us a large bowl that he used to send to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ whenever he went round to his wives, and on that day I was nine years old.

This wording appears to be mursal, yet it is linked to what al-Bayhaqī related through the chain of Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Jabbār, who reported from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Idrīs al-Awdi, from Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr, from Yaḥyā ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Ḥāṭib, who said:

She said