They dispatched a Bedouin to inform the Anṣār of their approach. About five hundred of the Anṣār came out to greet them and, when they met the two, said, “Go on your way—secure and obeyed.” The Messenger of Allah ﷺ and his Companion advanced in their midst, and the people of Madinah poured out to see them; even the young maidens stood on the rooftops, looking and asking, “Which one is he? Which one is he?” Never had we witnessed a scene like it.

Anas (may Allah be pleased with him) said, “I saw him on the day he entered our city and on the day he passed away, and I have never seen two days that resembled each other so closely.”

Al-Bayhaqī (1) relates this through al-Ḥākim, al-Aṣamm, Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq al-Ṣanʿānī, Abū al-Naḍr Hāshim ibn al-Qāsim, Sulaymān ibn al-Mughīrah, and Thābit, on the authority of Anas, in similar wording. It is also recorded in the two Ṣaḥīḥs (2) through Isrāʾīl, from Abū Isḥāq, from al-Barrāʾ, from Abū Bakr, in the account of the Hijrah:

“When we entered Madinah, people lined the roads and crowded the rooftops; boys and servants were all shouting, ‘Allāhu akbar! The Messenger of Allah has come! Allāhu akbar! Muhammad has come!’ They kept proclaiming this until morning, when he set off for the place to which he had been commanded.”

Al-Bayhaqī (3) further says: Abū ʿAmr al-Adīb told us, Abū Bakr al-Ismāʿīlī told us—I heard Abū Khalīfah say, “I heard Ibn ʿĀʾishah say: When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ arrived in Madinah, the women and children began to sing:

The full moon has risen over us from the passes of Wadāʿ;
Thanksgiving is incumbent upon us for as long as anyone calls on Allah.” (4)

Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq (5) states: According to what is related, when the Messenger of Allah ﷺ first alighted at Qubāʾ he stayed with Kulthūm ibn al-Hidm of Banū ʿAmr ibn ʿAwf, later counted among Banū ʿUbayd. Others say he stayed with Saʿd ibn Khaythamah. Those who maintain that he lodged with Kulthūm explain that whenever the Messenger of Allah ﷺ left Kulthūm’s house he would sit with the people in Saʿd’s house, for Saʿd was unmarried and his dwelling was known as “the Bachelor’s House.” Allah knows best.

Abū Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) stayed with Khubayb ibn Isāf of Banū al-Ḥārith ibn al-Khazraj in al-Sunḥ; others say he lodged with Khārijah ibn Zayd ibn Abī Zuhayr, also of that clan.

Ibn Isḥāq (6) adds: ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib remained in Mecca for three nights and their days until he had discharged, on behalf of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, the trusts that were with him.