Al-Wāqidī also relates: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Mūsā ibn Abī Umayyah transmitted to me, from Muṣʿab ibn ʿAbd Allāh, from a client of Suhayl ibn ʿAmr, who said: I heard Suhayl ibn ʿAmr say, “On the Day of Badr I saw white-robed men mounted on dapple-grey horses, suspended between heaven and earth, bearing clear marks, striking down foes and taking captives.

Abū Usayd, after he had lost his sight, used to recount: ‘If I were with you now at Badr and still had my eyesight, I would show you the very ravine from which the angels emerged—of that I have no doubt whatsoever.’

He (al-Wāqidī) said: Khārijah ibn Ibrāhīm narrated to me, from his father, who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ asked Gabriel, “Who among the angels called out on the Day of Badr, ‘Advance, Ḥayzūm!’?” Gabriel answered, “O Muḥammad, I do not know every inhabitant of heaven.” I say: This report is mursal, and it refutes the claim of those—such as al-Suhaylī and others—who assert that Ḥayzūm was the name of Gabriel’s horse. Allah knows best.

Al-Wāqidī further relates: Isḥāq ibn Yaḥyā told me, from Ḥamzah ibn Ṣuhayb, from his father, who said: “I cannot count how many severed hands and gaping wounds—whose cuts did not bleed—I witnessed on the Day of Badr.”

He also narrated to me through Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā, from Abū ʿUfayr, from Rāfiʿ ibn Khadīj, from Abū Burdah ibn Niyār, who said: “I came on the Day of Badr with three heads and placed them before the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. I said, ‘As for two of them, I killed them; as for the third, I saw a tall man strike him down, so I took his head.’ The Messenger of Allah ﷺ replied, ‘That was so-and-so from among the angels.’”

Mūsā ibn Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm also transmitted to me, from his father, that al-Sāʾib ibn Abī Ḥubash used to say during the caliphate of ʿUmar: “By Allah, no human being captured me.” People would ask, “Then who?” He would respond, “When Quraysh broke and fled, I fled with them. A tall, white man overtook me, bound me securely, and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf came and found me tied up. He called out to the army, ‘Who has taken this prisoner?’ yet no one claimed me, until he brought me before the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and he said—”