“Yes,” I replied.

He then announced, “Enter, but do not press upon one another.”

So he began breaking the bread, placing the meat upon it, covering the pot and the oven each time he took from them, handing the servings to his Companions and then withdrawing. He continued to break the bread and ladle out the broth until everyone had eaten to satiety, and yet a portion still remained. He said, “Eat from this and give some away, for the people have been struck by hunger.” Al-Bukhārī alone records this wording.

Imām Aḥmad also transmitted the narration through Wakīʿ, from ʿAbd al-Wāḥid ibn Ayman, from his father Ayman al-Ḥabashī, the freedman of Banū Makhzūm, from Jābir, including the mention of the rocky ledge and the stone tied to the Prophet’s noble stomach.

Al-Bayhaqī relates it in Dalāʾil al-Nubuwwah through al-Ḥākim, from al-Aṣamm, from Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Jabbār, from Yūnus ibn Bukayr, from ʿAbd al-Wāḥid ibn Ayman, from his father, from Jābir, with both the episode of the boulder and the meal—his version being fuller than that of al-Bukhārī. In it he says:

“When the Prophet ﷺ learned the amount of food, he said to all the Muslims, ‘Rise to Jābir,’ and they all rose. I experienced an embarrassment known only to Allah and exclaimed, ‘He has brought the whole crowd for a single ṣāʿ of barley and a kid!’ I went in to my wife and said, ‘We are disgraced; the Messenger of Allah ﷺ has arrived with everyone from the trench!’

“She asked, ‘Did he ask you how much food you had?’

“I said, ‘Yes.’

“She answered, ‘Allah and His Messenger know best.’ That lifted a great burden from me.

“The Messenger of Allah ﷺ entered and said, ‘Bring it—and leave me some of the meat.’ He then crumbled the bread into the broth and ladled out the meat, covering first this vessel and then that one. He kept serving the people until they had all eaten their fill, while the oven and the pot were as full as they had been. Then he said, ‘Eat and distribute gifts.’ We continued eating and giving away portions for the entire day.”

Abū Bakr ibn Abī Shaybah likewise narrated it through ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad al-Muḥāribī, from ʿAbd al-Wāḥid ibn Ayman, from his father, from Jābir, in an even more detailed form; at the close he added, “I was told they were eight hundred—or he said: three hundred.”

Yūnus ibn Bukayr transmitted it through Hishām ibn Saʿd, from Abū al-Zubayr, from Jābir, recounting only the lengthy portion about the food and stating, “They were three hundred.”

Al-Bukhārī next reports: ʿAmr ibn ʿAlī related to us; Abū ʿĀṣim related to us; Ḥanẓalah ibn Abī Sufyān informed us; Saʿīd ibn Mināʾ told us, “I heard Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh say:

‘When the trench was being dug I noticed intense hunger on the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, so I slipped away to my wife and said, “Do you have anything? I have seen severe hunger on the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.” She brought out a pouch containing a ṣāʿ of barley, and we had a small domesticated goat; I slaughtered it and ground the barley. When I finished, I cut up the meat and put it in its pot, then hurried off to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. She said, “Do not disgrace me before the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and those with him.” So I went to him…’