This report, too, is classified as gharīb, for it is transmitted solely through Maymūn ibn Ustādh. A Basran narrator, he reported traditions from al-Barāʾ and ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr, and his own transmitters include Ḥumayd al-Ṭawīl, al-Jarīrsh, and ʿAwf al-Aʿrābī.

Abū Ḥātim relates—on the authority of Isḥāq ibn Manṣūr—that Ibn Maʿīn judged him reliable. ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī, however, noted that Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd al-Qaṭṭān chose not to narrate from him.

Al-Nasāʾī records the following chain: “ʿĪsā ibn Yūnus narrated to us; Ḍamrah narrated to us; from Abū Zurʿah al-Saybānī; from Abū Sakīnah—one of the freedmen—who related from a Companion of the Prophet ﷺ who said:

‘When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ ordered that the trench be dug, a rock appeared that blocked the digging. The Prophet ﷺ rose, took up a pick-axe, laid his cloak to one side of the trench, and recited:

“And the words of your Lord have been fulfilled in truth and justice; none can alter His words, and He is the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing.” (Q 6:115)

With the first blow a third of the boulder split, and Salmān al-Fārisī was standing, watching. A flash of light shone forth with the strike. He struck a second time, again reciting the same verse; another third broke away and a flash appeared, which Salmān also saw. He struck a third time, repeating the verse; the remaining third shattered. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ then emerged, picked up his cloak, and sat down.

Salmān said, “O Messenger of Allah, whenever you struck, I saw a flash of light.”

The Prophet ﷺ asked, “Did you truly see that, Salmān?”

He replied, “Yes, by Him Who sent you with the truth, O Messenger of Allah.”

The Prophet ﷺ said, “When I struck the first blow, the cities of Chosroes (Kisrā) and the surrounding lands—even many other towns—were shown to me, and I saw them with my own eyes.”

Those present said, “O Messenger of Allah, pray that Allah grant us their conquest, their offspring as booty, and that we may ourselves lay waste to their lands.” He supplicated accordingly.

He continued, “When I struck the second blow, the cities of Caesar (Qaysar) and what surrounds them were displayed before me, until I could see them with my own eyes.” They repeated their request, and he prayed for that as well.

He then said, “When I struck the third blow, the cities of Abyssinia and the villages around them were raised before me, so that I saw them with my own eyes.”

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ concluded, “Leave the Abyssinians alone so long as they leave you alone, and leave the Turks alone so long as they leave you alone.”’

This is the detailed version related by al-Nasāʾī. Abū Dāwūd transmitted only the saying, “Leave the Abyssinians alone so long as they leave you alone, and leave the Turks alone so long as they leave you alone,” through the chain of ʿĪsā ibn Muḥammad al-Ramlī, from Ḍamrah ibn Rabīʿah, from Abū Zurʿah Yaḥyā ibn Abī ʿAmr al-Saybānī.

Ibn Isḥāq then said: “Someone whose reliability I do not doubt informed me that Abū Hurayrah used to say, once these lands had been conquered…”