He said, “It is yours.” So ʿAlī set out with the banner—by Allah, he leaned into his stride, moving at a brisk trot while we followed close behind him—until he planted the standard in a mound of stones at the foot of the fortress. A Jew looked down from the top of the stronghold and called out, “Who are you?” He answered, “I am ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib.” The Jew replied, “You have prevailed, and so has what was sent down to Moses!” ʿAlī did not return until Allah granted victory through him.

Al-Bayhaqī relates (2): al-Ḥākim told us, al-Aṣamm told us, al-ʿUṭāridī told us, from Yūnus ibn Bukayr, from al-Ḥusayn ibn Wāqid, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Buraydah, who said: My father related to me that on the day of Khaybar Abū Bakr took the banner, but came back without a conquest; Maḥmūd ibn Maslama was killed, and the people withdrew. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Tomorrow I shall surely give my banner to a man who loves Allah and His Messenger and whom Allah and His Messenger love; he will not return until victory is granted to him.” We spent the night confident that the conquest would be the next day. At dawn the Messenger of Allah ﷺ led the morning prayer, then called for the banner and stood up. There was not one of us who enjoyed a standing with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ except that he hoped to be that man. I even stretched my neck and lifted my head, owing to the position I held with him. Yet he summoned ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, who was complaining of his eyes. He wiped them for him, handed him the banner, and Allah opened the fortress at his hands.

I heard ʿAbd Allāh ibn Buraydah say, “My father told me that he was the one who confronted Marḥab.” Yūnus said: Ibn Isḥāq reported that the first fortress of Khaybar to fall was the fortress of Nāʿim, and it was there that Maḥmūd ibn Maslama was killed when a mill-stone was dropped upon him.

Al-Bayhaqī also narrates (3) through Yūnus ibn Bukayr, from al-Musayyab ibn Maslama al-Azdī, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Buraydah, from his father, who said: “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ would sometimes be afflicted with migraine, remaining indoors for a day or two. When we reached Khaybar he suffered such a migraine and did not go out to the people. Abū Bakr then took the banner of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, rose and fought fiercely, but returned. ʿUmar then took it and fought even more fiercely than the first time, but he too returned. This was reported to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, who said, ‘Tomorrow I shall give it to a man who loves Allah and His Messenger and whom Allah and His Messenger love; he will seize it by force.’ ʿAlī was not present. The men of Quraysh craned their necks, each hoping to be that man. Morning came, and ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib arrived on his camel and kneeled nearby, his eyes inflamed and bandaged with a strip of Qitrī cloth. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ asked, ‘What is the matter?’ He replied, ‘My eyes have been hurting since you left.’ The Prophet ﷺ said, ‘Come closer.’ He spat into his eyes, and they never hurt him again until he departed this world. Then he gave him the banner, and ʿAlī rose with it, wearing a red, purple-hued cloak whose nap he had turned outward. He advanced toward the city of Khaybar, and Marḥab, the master of the fortress, came out wearing a Yemeni helmet and a stone pierced like an egg upon his head, chanting:

Khaybar well knows that I am Marḥab—
fully armed, a seasoned warrior.
When blazing lions advance in fury,
they shrink from the charge of the conqueror.