that they were angels.

Al-Bayhaqī also transmitted the report through al-Ḥākim, al-Aṣamm, Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Jabbār, Yūnus ibn Bukayr, and Ibn Isḥāq with the same wording, adding that Khadīj ibn al-ʿAwjāʾ al-Naṣrī, alluding to the incident, declaimed:

When we drew near to Hunayn and its wells,
A dusky mass appeared—so strange, so dark, so dense.
A swirling ash-grey cloud; had they flung into it
The jagged peaks of ʿArwā, it would have ground them flat.
Had the chiefs of my people but followed my counsel,
We should never have met that unveiled tempest—
Never have faced the host of Muḥammad’s house:
Eighty thousand strong, reinforced by Khindif.

Ibn Isḥāq (1) likewise cited verses by Mālik ibn ʿAwf al-Naṣrī, the commander of Hawāzin, who in the very heart of battle chanted:

Advance, Muḥāj! Today is a day of dread;
A man like me shields—and then wheels—to charge a man like you.
When the line is lost and the rear collapses,
Still squadron gathers upon squadron,
Columns so thick the eye grows weary.
I drive a thrust that rends with jagged blades
When the cowering craven is cursed.
I stab the broad-ribbed steed—it howls and snarls;
From its belly a torrent of gore pours down,
At times it spurts, at times it bursts.
The ‘fox’ of its haft lies shattered within it.
O Zayn, son of Hamham, where will you flee?
The molar is spent and the years are long;
The long, gleaming swords full-shrouded know
That in such trials I am no novice,
When even the nursing child is torn from behind the veils.

Al-Bayhaqī (2), via Yūnus ibn Bukayr from Abū Isḥāq, also recited lines ascribed to Mālik, uttered when his men turned and fled—though some attribute them to another—after he had embraced Islam:

Make known to all mankind the march they made:
Above Mālik the banners cracked and flapped.
Mālik—Mālik! None towered over him
On the Day of Hunayn; upon his brow a flashing crown.
They met their foes at the moment of strife, he leading them,
Helmets, coats of mail, and shields encasing them.
They fought and fought till no one could be seen
Around the Prophet, till twilight cloaked the field.
Then Gabriel descended with their victory:
Some of the enemy fled, others were seized.
Had any but Gabriel fought against us,
Our tightly-gripped swords would have turned him back.
ʿUmar al-Fārūq proved true when they broke,
With a thrust that soaked his saddle-cloth in blood.