Al-Mubārak related to us—through ʿĪsā ibn Ṭahmān—who said: “Anas ibn Mālik brought out to us a pair of sandals, each with two thongs (qibāl). Thābit al-Bunānī remarked, ‘These are the sandals of the Prophet ﷺ.’
Al-Bukhārī also records this in the Book of Khums, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad, from Abū Aḥmad al-Zubayrī, from ʿĪsā ibn Ṭahmān, from Anas, who said: “Anas produced for us two plain, hairless sandals with two qibāl; afterward Thābit al-Bunānī told me, on Anas’s authority, that they were the sandals of the Prophet ﷺ.” Al-Tirmidhī likewise cites the report in al-Shamāʾil through Aḥmad ibn Manīʿ from Abū Aḥmad al-Zubayrī with this same chain.
Al-Tirmidhī further says in al-Shamāʾil: “Abū Kurayb narrated to us; Wakiʿ narrated to us; from Sufyān; from Khālid al-Ḥadhdhāʾ; from ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ḥārith; from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: ‘The sandals of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ had two qibāl, and their straps were doubled.’”
He also reports: “Isḥāq ibn Manṣūr told us; ʿAbd al-Razzāq narrated to us; from Maʿmar; from Ibn Abī Dhīb; from Ṣāliḥ, the client of al-Tawʾamah; from Abū Hurayrah, who said: ‘The sandals of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ had two qibāl.’”
Al-Tirmidhī adds: “Muḥammad ibn Marzūq Abū ʿAbd Allāh told us; ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Qays Abū Muʿāwiyah told us; Hishām narrated to us; from Muḥammad; from Abū Hurayrah, who said: ‘The sandals of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ had two qibāl, as did those of Abū Bakr and ʿUmar. The first to use a single strap was ʿUthmān.’”
Al-Jawharī explains: “The qibāl of a sandal—pronounced with a short i—is the strap that lies between the middle toe and the one next to it.”
I would add: Around the year 600 AH and thereafter, a single sandal reputed to be the Prophet’s ﷺ became famous in the possession of a merchant named Ibn Abī al-Ḥadrad. King al-Ashraf Mūsā, son of al-Malik al-ʿĀdil Abū Bakr ibn Ayyūb, offered him a large sum of money for it, but he refused to sell. Some time later the merchant died, and the sandal passed to King al-Ashraf, who took it and venerated it. When he built the Ashrafiyyah Dār al-Ḥadīth beside the Citadel, he placed the sandal in one of its vaults, appointed a custodian for it, and fixed for him a monthly stipend of forty dirhams. The sandal remains there to this very day.
Al-Tirmidhī also says in al-Shamāʾil: “Muḥammad ibn Rāfiʿ and others told us; Abū Aḥmad al-Zubayrī told us; Shaybān narrated to us; from ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Mukhtār; from Mūsā ibn Anas; from his father, who said: ‘The Messenger of Allah ﷺ had a small scent-vial (sukkah) from which he would perfume himself.’”