On the third night someone called out, “Feed the prisoner,” so they handed the food over to him as well, and thus they went without food for three full days and nights. In their honor Allah revealed: “Has there not come upon man a span of time …” up to His words, “We desire from you neither recompense nor thanks” (al-Insān 1–9).

This report is regarded as munkar; some leading scholars even consider it fabricated, citing its feeble wording and the fact that the sūrah is Meccan, whereas al-Ḥasan and al-Ḥusayn were born in Madinah. Allah knows best.

Laylā, the freedwoman of ʿĀʾishah, said, “O Messenger of Allah, you leave the privy and I enter right after you; I see nothing, yet I smell the fragrance of musk.” He replied, “We, the company of prophets—our bodies are nurtured on the spirits of the people of Paradise; whatever unpleasantness issues from us is swallowed up by the earth.” Abū Nuʿaym related this through Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Madani, an otherwise unknown narrator.

Māriyah the Copt, mother of Ibrāhīm, was mentioned earlier among the Mothers of the Believers. Ibn al-Athīr distinguishes her from another woman named Māriyah, the mother of al-Rabāb, noting that she too was a bondwoman of the Prophet ﷺ. Her report circulates among the scholars of Basra: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ḥabīb narrated from Umm Sulaymān, from her mother, from her grandmother Māriyah, who said, “I bent down for the Prophet ﷺ so that he could climb over a wall one night when he was fleeing from the idolaters.” Ibn al-Athīr adds, “And there is Māriyah, the servant of the Prophet ﷺ.” Abū Bakr ibn ʿAyyāsh transmitted from al-Mathnā ibn Ṣāliḥ, from his grandmother Māriyah—who served the Prophet ﷺ—that she said, “My hand has never touched anything softer than the palm of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.” Abū ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-Barr remarks in al-Istīʿāb, “I do not know whether she is the same Māriyah mentioned earlier or another.”

Among them was Maymūnah bint Saʿd. Imām Aḥmad said: ʿAlī ibn Baḥr narrated to us; ʿĪsā—meaning Ibn Yūnus—narrated to us; Thawr—meaning Ibn Yazīd—reported from Ziyād ibn Abī Sawdah, from his brother, that Maymūnah, the Prophet’s freedwoman ﷺ, asked, “O Messenger of Allah, should we visit Bayt al-Maqdis?” He replied, “It is the land of resurrection and gathering. Go to it and pray there, for one prayer offered therein equals a thousand elsewhere.” She asked, “What about someone who is unable to undertake the journey?” He said, “Let him send oil for its lamps; whoever does so is as though he has prayed there.”