He went on reciting the poem mentioned earlier until he reached the line:
“and the prince leads the beloved far away.”

He then returned to us and said, “He is yours.”
So we brought the young man forward and struck off his neck.
Thereupon the other woman climbed down from her litter, bent over him, and did not leave him until she too died.

Al-Ḥāfiẓ al-Bayhaqī narrates—through Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Nasāʾī, Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn Ḥarb al-Marwazī, ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn Wāqid, his father, Yazīd al-Naḥwī, ʿIkrimah, from Ibn ʿAbbās—that the Messenger of God ﷺ dispatched a detachment which returned with spoils. Among the captives was a man who said to the soldiers, “I am not one of them. I fell in love with a woman and have followed her. Let me look at her once, and then do with me whatever you wish.”

They found a tall, dark-skinned woman, and he said to her,
“Embrace Islam, Ḥubaysh, before life slips away!”
Then he recited the two verses in substance.
She answered, “Yes, may I be your ransom.”
They advanced him and struck his neck. The woman came, collapsed upon him, gasped once or twice, and died. When the detachment returned and related the story to the Messenger of God ﷺ, he said:
“Was there not among you a single compassionate man?”

***
Khalid ibn al-Walid Sent to Demolish al-ʿUzzā

Ibn Jarīr said: Its destruction occurred five days before the end of Ramadan that year.

Ibn Isḥāq said: The Messenger of God ﷺ then sent Khalid ibn al-Walid to al-ʿUzzā, a shrine at Nakhlah revered by Quraysh, Kinānah, and Muḍar. Its custodians and gatekeepers were Banū Shaybān of Banū Sulaym, allies of Banū Hāshim. When its Sulamī keeper heard of Khalid’s approach he girded the idol with his sword, hurried up the mountain where it stood, and cried:

O ʿUzzā, tighten your girding, hold nothing back;
unveil yourself to Khalid—steel your attack!
O ʿUzzā, if you will not kill the man Khalid,
then bear an instant sin, or else embrace the Rood!

When Khalid reached the site he demolished it and returned to the Messenger of God ﷺ.

Al-Wāqidī and others report that Khalid arrived with five days remaining of Ramadan, tore the shrine down, and came back to inform the Prophet ﷺ. He asked, “What did you see?” Khalid replied, “I saw nothing.” The Prophet ordered him to go back. On Khalid’s return a black woman with disheveled hair came out of the building wailing; he struck her with the sword while chanting:

[rajaz verse follows]