Abū al-Qāsim al-Baghawī said:

Abū al-Rabīʿ Sulaymān ibn Dāwūd al-Zahrānī and Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar al-Warkānī both narrated to us; they said: Shurayk ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Nakhaʿī narrated to us, from ʿImrān al-Nakhallī (1), from a client of Umm Salamah. He said:

“We were with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ when we passed by a valley—or perhaps it was a river—and I was carrying the people across. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said to me:

‘From this day forward you are nothing but Safīnah (a ship).’”

Imām Aḥmad (2) recorded the same report from Aswad ibn ʿĀmir, from Shurayk.

Abū ʿAbd Allāh ibn Mandah also transmitted: al-Ḥasan ibn Mukram narrated to us; ʿUthmān ibn ʿUmar narrated to us; Usāmah ibn Zayd narrated to us, from Muḥammad ibn al-Munkadir, from Safīnah, who said:

“I once sailed the sea aboard a ship that broke apart. I clung to one of its planks, which cast me onto an island where a lion appeared before me. I said, ‘O Abū al-Ḥārith! I am the freedman of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.’ He kept nudging me with his shoulder until he set me on the road, then growled, and I took it to be his greeting.”

Abū al-Qāsim al-Baghawī likewise narrated this from Ibrāhīm ibn Hāniʾ, from ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Mūsā, from an unnamed man, from Muḥammad ibn al-Munkadir, from him; and he transmitted it as well from Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Makhramī, from Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Salamah also related it from Muḥammad ibn al-Munkadir on the authority of Safīnah, and mentioned the same story.

He further reported: Hārūn ibn ʿAbd Allāh narrated to us; ʿAlī ibn ʿĀṣim narrated to us; Abū Rayḥānah told me, from Safīnah, the freedman of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, who said:

“A lion confronted me. I said, ‘I am Safīnah, the freedman of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.’ He struck the ground with his tail and sat down.”

Muslim and the compilers of the Sunan have transmitted ḥadīths from him as well. It has already been noted in the report recorded by Imām Aḥmad that he lived in the valley of Nakhlah and survived into the era of al-Ḥajjāj.

Among them is Salmān al-Fārisī (3), Abū ʿAbd Allāh, the client of Islam. He was originally Persian, and the vicissitudes of life brought him into the possession of a Jew from Madinah. When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ migrated to Madinah, Salmān accepted Islam. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ told him to draw up a manumission contract with his Jewish master, and the Messenger of Allah ﷺ helped him pay what was due until he was freed. Concerning him the Prophet ﷺ said:

“Salmān is one of us—the People of the House.” (4)

We have already related the story of his departure from his homeland and how he kept company with those monks, one after another, until his journey brought him