Ziyād ibn Abī al-Jaʿd transmitted it from Jāmiʿ ibn Shaddād, from Ṭāriq ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Muḥāribī—though only in part. Al-Ḥāfiẓ al-Bayhaqī (1) likewise recorded it, through al-Ḥākim, al-Aṣamm, Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Jabbār, Yūnus ibn Bukayr, Yazīd ibn Ziyād, from Jāmiʿ, from Ṭāriq in its complete form, as cited earlier. In that version he relates:
The woman traveller said, “Do not reproach one another, for I beheld the face of a man who would never betray. I have never seen anything that resembled the full moon on the night it is at its brightest more than his face.”
The Arrival of the Envoy of Farwah ibn ʿAmr al-Hudhamī (2), lord of the district of Maʿān (3)
Ibn Isḥāq (4) reports: Farwah ibn ʿAmr ibn al-Nāfirah al-Judhamī, later known as al-Nufātī (5), sent a messenger to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ declaring his acceptance of Islam and presented him with a white mule. Farwah served the Byzantines as their governor over the Arabs who lived near them, and his residence was in Maʿān and its environs in greater Syria. When the Byzantines learned of his conversion they pursued him, captured him, and kept him in custody.
While imprisoned he composed the following verses:
(Kāmil metre)
Sulaymā came to me by night, when my comrades were weary,
while the Romans stood between the gate and the ramparts.
The phantom turned aside, distressed by what it beheld;
I almost drifted to slumber, yet tears overtook me.
Salma, never darken your eyes with antimony once I am gone,
nor draw near for any tryst.
You know full well, O Abū Kubayshah, that I
dwell among men of honour—my tongue will not be restrained.
If I should perish, you will surely miss your brother;
but if I remain, you will recognise my station.
Indeed I have gathered the noblest qualities a youth may gather:
generosity, courage and eloquence.
When the Byzantines resolved to crucify him at a watering-place of theirs called ʿIfri (9) in Palestine, he said:
(Ṭawīl metre)
Has news reached Salma that her husband
is at the waters of ʿIfri, bound atop one of the mounts?