This is Aḥmad’s wording. The ḥadīth was also recorded by Abū Dāwūd, al-Tirmidhī, and al-Nasāʾī (1) through various chains that trace back to Saʿīd ibn Jumhān. Al-Tirmidhī observed, “It is ḥasan; we know it only through his narration,” and his version reads: “The caliphate after me will last thirty years; then there will come a biting kingship.” He cited the remainder of the report as well.

I say: When the Prophet’s Mosque was first erected, it contained no pulpit on which he addressed the people. Rather, the Prophet ﷺ would deliver the sermon while leaning against a palm-trunk situated by his place of prayer along the southern wall. After a pulpit was fashioned for him—as will be explained in its proper context—and he shifted to it, the trunk he had left behind moaned and wailed like a she-camel whose young has been separated from her, for it had grown accustomed to hearing the Prophet’s sermons. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ returned, embraced it, and it quieted, just as an infant falls silent when soothed. The details of this event will come, through multiple chains (2) from Sahl ibn Saʿd al-Sāʿidī, Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh, Ibn ʿUmar, Ibn ʿAbbās, Anas ibn Mālik, and Umm Salamah (may Allah be pleased with them all).

How excellent, then, are the words of al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī—after he narrated this report from Anas ibn Mālik—when he exclaimed: “O Muslims! A mere piece of wood yearned for the Messenger of Allah ﷺ out of longing for him; are not men who hope to meet him even more entitled to yearn for him?”

[Notice of the virtue of this noble mosque and exalted site]

Imām Aḥmad (3) said: Yḥyā narrated to us, from (4) Anīs ibn Abī Yaḥyā; he related from his father: I heard Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī say: Two men—one from Banū Khudrah, the other from Banū ʿAmr ibn ʿAwf—disputed concerning the mosque that was founded on piety. The Khudrī held that it was the Mosque of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, whereas the ʿAmrī claimed it was the mosque of Qubāʾ. They came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and asked him about it. He replied, “It is this mosque,” meaning the Prophet’s Mosque; then he added, “In that one there is much good,” referring to the mosque of Qubāʾ.

Al-Tirmidhī likewise transmitted it (5) from Qutaybah, from Ḥātim ibn Ismāʿīl, from Anīs ibn Abī Yaḥyā al-Aslamī with this chain, and said, “It is ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ.”

Imām Aḥmad also narrated it (6) from Isḥāq ibn ʿĪsā, from al-Layth ibn Saʿd; and both al-Tirmidhī and al-Nasāʾī (7) related it from—