This report and those like it prove that the jinn came to Mecca more than once. We established that point earlier with sufficient detail—praise and grace belong to Allah alone, and with Him is success.

Al-Ḥāfiẓ Abū Bakr al-Bayhaqī cites here an exceedingly strange ḥadīth—indeed one that is repudiated, if not outright fabricated. Yet its chain of transmission is rare, and for that reason we shall quote it exactly as he recorded it. What is surprising is that, in his work Dalāʾil al-Nubuwwah, he introduces it under the heading: “The arrival of Hāmah ibn al-Haym ibn Lāqīs ibn Iblīs before the Prophet ﷺ and his acceptance of Islam.”

He says: Abū al-Ḥasan Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn Dāwud al-ʿAlawī narrated to us; Abū Naṣr Muḥammad ibn Ḥamdawayh ibn Sahl al-Fāzī al-Marwazī informed us; ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ḥammād al-Āmulī related to us; Muḥammad ibn Abī Maʿshar told us, on the authority of his father, from Nāfiʿ, from Ibn ʿUmar, who said:

ʿUmar reported: While we were sitting with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ on one of the mountains of Tihāmah, an old man approached carrying a staff. He greeted the Prophet ﷺ with salām, and he returned the greeting, then said, “The accent and muttering of the jinn—who are you?”

The man replied, “I am Hāmah ibn al-Haym ibn Lāqīs ibn Iblīs.”

The Prophet ﷺ said, “Then only two forefathers separate you from Iblīs himself. How many ages have passed over you?”

He answered, “I have outlived almost the entire span of this world. On the nights when Cain killed Abel I was but a lad of a few years, able to understand speech, roaming the hills, urging the corruption of food and the severing of kinship ties.”

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ remarked, “How vile are the deeds of a perceptive grey-haired elder and a procrastinating youth.”

The old man said, “Spare me further rebuke; I am repenting to Allah. I was with Noah in his mosque, alongside those of his people who believed in him. I kept reproaching him for invoking punishment upon his people until he wept and made me weep. He said, ‘Indeed, I am of those who regret that, and I seek refuge in Allah from being among the ignorant.’

“I then said, ‘O Noah, I was among those who shared in the blood of the blessed martyr Abel son of Adam. Can you find a path of repentance for me?’

“He replied, ‘O Hām, resolve to do good and act before regret and remorse seize you. I have read in what Allah has revealed to me that no servant—whatever his crime—repents to Allah but that Allah accepts his repentance. Rise, perform ablution, and offer two prostrations to Allah.’

“I obeyed immediately. He then called out, ‘Raise your head; your repentance has descended from heaven.’ So I fell in prostration to Allah once more.

“He also said, ‘I was with Hūd in his mosque, together with those of his people who believed in him, and I kept…’