Al-Bukhārī relates in his History: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Yūsuf narrated to us, from Ibn Wahb, from Yūnus ibn Yazīd, from al-Zuhrī, who said: “Umm Ayman cared for the Prophet ﷺ until he grew up. He then set her free and married her to Zayd ibn Ḥārithah, and she died five months after the Prophet ﷺ.”
Others maintain that she remained alive even after the assassination of ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb.
Muslim likewise transmitted the report (1) from Abū al-Ṭāhir and Ḥaramlah, both from Ibn Wahb, from Yūnus, from al-Zuhrī, who said: “Umm Ayman the Abyssinian …” and he cited the tradition in full.
Muḥammad ibn Saʿd reports from al-Wāqidī (2) that Umm Ayman died at the beginning of the caliphate of ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān.
Al-Wāqidī (3) said: Yahyā ibn Saʿīd ibn Dīnār informed us, on the authority of an elder from Banī Saʿd ibn Bakr, who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ would address Umm Ayman as “Mother,” and whenever he looked at her he would say, “She is what remains of the people of my household.”
Abū Bakr ibn Abī Khaythamah said: Sulaymān ibn Abī Shaykh told me (4): The Prophet ﷺ used to say, “Umm Ayman is my mother after my own mother.”
Al-Wāqidī (5) further related, on the authority of his Madinan associates: Umm Ayman once saw the Prophet ﷺ drinking and said, “Give me something to drink.” ʿĀʾishah exclaimed, “Do you say that to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ?!” She replied, “I have served him longer than anyone.” The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “She speaks the truth,” then he brought her water and gave her to drink.
Al-Mufaḍḍal ibn Ghassān said: Wahb ibn Jarīr narrated to us, from his father, who said: I heard ʿUthmān ibn al-Qāsim say (6): When Umm Ayman migrated she halted at al-Munṣarif, not far from al-Rawḥāʾ, while fasting. She was overtaken by severe thirst that overwhelmed her. A bucket suspended by a white rope was lowered to her from the sky, filled with water. She said, “I drank from it, and thirst has never afflicted me since. I even put myself to the test by fasting in the fiercest heat, yet I never felt thirsty again.”
The ḥāfiẓ Abū Yaʿlā reported: Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr al-Muqaddamī narrated to us; Salm ibn Qutaybah transmitted to us, from al-Ḥusayn ibn Ḥurayth, from Yaʿlā ibn ʿAṭāʾ, from al-Walīd ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, from Umm Ayman, who said (7): “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ had a small earthen vessel into which he would urinate; when morning came he would say, ‘Umm Ayman, pour out whatever is in the vessel.’ One night I got up very thirsty [and by mistake] and I drank …”