Let the sons of Kaʿb rejoice in the spot their maiden once graced;
her seat now stands on watch, reserved for the believers.

Asmāʾ said: “When we heard those verses, we understood where the Messenger of Allah ﷺ had gone—his course was toward Madinah.”

Ibn Isḥāq relates: They were four in all—the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, Abū Bakr, ʿĀmir ibn Fuhayrah (Abū Bakr’s freedman), and ʿAbd Allah ibn Arqad. Ibn Isḥāq names him thus, though the better-known version calls him ʿAbd Allah ibn Urayqiṭ al-Duʾalī, who at that time was still a polytheist.

Ibn Isḥāq continues: When their guide, ʿAbd Allah ibn Arqad, set out with the two of them, he led them along the lower outskirts of Mecca, then followed the coastal route until he crossed the main road below ʿUsfān. From there he steered them through the lower reaches of Amaj, then on until he again intersected the road after passing Qudayd. Leaving it, he took them through al-Kharrār, over the pass of al-Marrah, by way of Laqf, through the track of Midlajat Laqf, and down into the bed of Midlajat Mijāj. He travelled on by Marjiḥ Mijāj, entered the valley of Marjiḥ near Dhū al-Ghaḍawayn, then the wadi of Dhū Kashr, crossed al-Jadājid and al-Ajrad, and guided them through Dhū Salam, in the valley of Adyāʾ Majlajah Tiʿhin, on to al-ʿAbābīd and across to al-Qāḥah. At last he brought them down to al-ʿArj, where one of their mounts lagged behind. A man of the Aslam tribe named Aws ibn Ḥujar therefore carried the Messenger of Allah ﷺ on a camel called Ibn al-Ridāʾ to Madinah, sending with him his servant Masʿūd ibn Hunaydah. Their guide then left al-ʿArj with the two of them, took them through the pass of al-ʿĀʾir to the right of Rakūbah—termed the pass of al-Ghāʾir according to Ibn Hishām—until he brought them down into the valley of Raʾm, and from there they advanced