This ḥadīth is also found in both Ṣaḥīḥ collections. It is transmitted through Shaybān ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, from Yaḥyā ibn Abī Kathīr, from Abū Salamah ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, from Abū Hurayrah, who said that the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—declared:
“Shall I inform you about the Antichrist with a report no prophet ever gave his people? He is one-eyed, and he will come with something that looks like Paradise and something that looks like Fire. What he calls Paradise is in truth Fire. I warn you of him just as Noah warned his people.”
This is al-Bukhārī’s wording.
Some of the early scholars said: After Allah answered Noah’s supplication, He commanded him to plant trees from which to build the Ark. Noah planted them and waited a hundred years, then fashioned the timber during the next hundred years. Others said the entire process took forty years; Allah knows best.
Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq relates from al-Thawrī that the vessel was made of teak wood; it has also been said it was made of pine, which is the wording found in the Torah. Al-Thawrī further said that Noah was instructed to make its length eighty cubits and its width fifty cubits, to coat both its interior and exterior with pitch, and to give it a slightly curved prow so that it would cleave the water.
Qatādah stated: Its length was three hundred cubits and its width fifty cubits—exactly what I saw written in the Torah. Al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī said: six hundred by three hundred cubits. Ibn ʿAbbās held that it measured one thousand two hundred cubits in length and six hundred in width. Another view says it was two thousand cubits long and one hundred cubits wide.
All of them agree that its height was thirty cubits and that it had three decks, each ten cubits high: the lowest for cattle and wild beasts, the middle for people, and the upper for birds. Its door was set in the side, and it had a roof that closed over it.
Allah, exalted is He, says:
“He said, ‘My Lord, help me, for they have denied me.’ So We revealed to him: ‘Build the Ark under Our eyes and according to Our revelation. When Our command comes and the oven bursts forth, embark in it two of every kind, together with your family—except those against whom the decree has already passed—and do not plead with Me concerning those who have done wrong; they are to be drowned.’” (al-Muʾminūn 26–27)
Meaning: Build it by Our command, under Our watchful gaze, while We direct you to what is right in its construction. When the moment of Our decree arrives and the punishment descends, load onto the Ark two of every species—animals and all that possesses a soul—as well as foodstuffs and the like, so that their progeny might survive. Take your family with you—that is, the members of your household—except the one upon whom the word has already fallen, namely whoever persisted in disbelief. The irrevocable supplication had already taken effect against such a person, and the unavoidable punishment had been decreed for him. Allah also forbade Noah to intercede for them once the torment befell them, for the decision concerning them was final, as we have explained earlier.