“…I have no one with me, so if you are looking for hospitality, seek it from the chief of the clan.”
He offered no reply, and it was already evening. Just then her son arrived, driving several she-goats. She said, “My boy, take this goat and the knife to those two men and tell them, ‘My mother says: slaughter this animal, eat, and give us to eat as well.’ ”
When the boy came, the Prophet ﷺ said, “Take the knife back and bring me a bowl.” The lad answered, “She has been away from the ram and has no milk.” He replied, “Go.” The boy returned with a bowl; the Messenger of Allah ﷺ passed his hand over the goat’s udder and milked it until the bowl was full. He then said, “Take it to your mother.” She drank until she was satisfied.
The boy brought the bowl back and he said, “Take this and bring me another.” He did the same, then gave Abū Bakr to drink. A third time he repeated the act, and then the Prophet ﷺ himself drank. We spent the night there and afterwards continued on our way.
From that day on she called him “the Blessed One.” Her flock multiplied so abundantly that she later brought a full drove of sheep to Madinah. Abū Bakr happened to pass by, saw her son, and recognized him. He said, “Mother, that is the man who was with the Blessed One.”
She came up and asked, “Servant of Allah, who was the man that was with you?” He replied, “Do you not know who he is?” She said, “No.” He said, “He is the Prophet of Allah.” She said, “Then take me to him.”
He ushered her in; the Messenger of Allah ﷺ hosted her and gave her something. Ibn ʿAbdān adds in his version: She said, “Show me the way to him,” set out with me, and presented the Messenger of Allah with a gift of dried curd (aqiṭ) and other Bedouin provisions. He clothed her and gave her something, and—so far as I remember—she accepted Islam. The chain of transmission is sound (ḥasan).
Al-Bayhaqī remarked: “This account is similar to the story of Umm Maʿbad; it appears to be the very same woman, and Allah knows best.”
Al-Bayhaqī also reports (1): Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ and Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥasan al-Qāḍī informed us; they said: Abū al-ʿAbbās al-Aṣamm narrated to us; al-Ḥasan (2) ibn Mukram narrated to us; Abū Aḥmad Bishr ibn Muḥammad al-Sukkari told me; ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Wahb al-Madhḥajī narrated to us; al-Ḥurr ibn al-Ṣayyaḥ (3) narrated from Abū Maʿbad al-Khuzāʿī that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ set out on the night of the Hijrah from Mecca to Madinah with Abū Bakr and ʿĀmir ibn Fuhayrah, the freedman of Abū Bakr, while their guide was ʿAbd Allāh ibn Urayqiṭ al-Laythī. They passed by the two tents of Umm Maʿbad al-Khuzāʿiyyah. Umm Maʿbad was a sturdy, resolute woman (4) who would wrap her cloak around her knees and sit at the entrance of her tent.