Al-Tirmidhī (1) and al-Nasāʾī (2) also recorded the report through the narration of Sufyān al-Thawrī.
All of these traditions testify to the merit of the Yemeni delegations, yet none of them specifies the exact time of their arrival. As for the deputation of Banū Tamīm—although they arrived later—this does not mean their coming coincided with that of the Ashʿarīs. In fact, the Ashʿarī delegation preceded them: they entered Madinah with Abū Mūsā al-Ashʿarī, accompanying Jaʿfar ibn Abī Ṭālib and the Emigrants who had been in Abyssinia. All of that took place when the Messenger of Allah ﷺ conquered Khaybar, as we have explained in detail elsewhere.
We have already cited his ﷺ words:
“By Allah, I do not know which pleases me more—the arrival of Jaʿfar or the conquest of Khaybar.” (3) And Allah, exalted is He, knows best.
Al-Bukhārī (4) states under the heading “The Story of ʿUmān and Bahrain”:
Qutaybah ibn Saʿīd related to us; Sufyān [ibn ʿUyaynah] related to us; he heard Muḥammad ibn al-Munkadir, who heard Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh say:
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said to me, “If the revenue from Bahrain arrives, I will give you this and this,” and he gestured three times. The money from Bahrain did not reach Madinah until after the Messenger of Allah ﷺ had passed away. When it finally came to Abū Bakr, he ordered a crier to announce: “Whoever the Prophet ﷺ owed a debt to, or to whom he had made a promise, let him come to me.”
Jābir continues: I went to Abū Bakr and informed him that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ had said, “If the revenue from Bahrain arrives, I will give you this and this”—gesturing three times. So he gave me my share.
Later I met Abū Bakr and asked him again, but he did not give me anything. I approached him a second time and he still did not give; I came a third time and again received nothing. I therefore said, “I have come to you and you have not given me; I came again and you did not give me; I came a third time and you still did not give me. Either give me or withhold from me openly!”
He replied, “Did you say: ‘Withhold from me’?” Then he added, “What ailment is more severe than miserliness!”—and he repeated this three times—“I never refrained from giving you except while intending to do so.”
This is how al-Bukhārī relates the incident here, and Muslim (7) also transmits it through ʿAmr al-Nāqid, from Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah.
Al-Bukhārī (8) then adds: from ʿAmr, from Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī, I heard Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh say: I came to him, and Abū Bakr said, “Count it.” I counted it and found it to be five hundred. He then said, “Take the same amount twice more.”
Al-Bukhārī (9) likewise reports the narration