In another narration transmitted by Yūnus, from Ibn Isḥāq, he said: “By Allah, it is as though I am looking at his shin resting in the stirrup, gleaming like the fresh pith of a date-palm” (1).

I say: he meant that, because of its striking whiteness, it resembled the inner pith of a palm shoot.

Imām Aḥmad (2) said: “Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah narrated to us, from Ismāʿīl ibn Umayyah, from their freedman—Muzaḥim ibn Abī Muzaḥim—on the authority of ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Khālid ibn Asīd, from a man of Khuzaʿah called Muḥarrish or Mukharrish—Sufyān was unsure of his name and would sometimes say Muḥarrish; I did not hear it myself—that the Prophet ﷺ left al-Jiʿrānah by night, performed ʿumrah, then returned and spent the remainder of the night there. I looked at his back and it was as though it were a bar of silver.” This report is unique to Aḥmad.

Yaʿqūb ibn Sufyān (3) likewise transmitted it through al-Ḥumaydī, from Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah.

Yaʿqūb ibn Sufyān (4) also said: “Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm ibn al-ʿAlāʾ related to us; ʿAmr ibn al-Ḥārith told me; ʿAbd Allāh ibn Sālim narrated to me, from al-Zubaydī, who informed me from Muḥammad ibn Muslim, from Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib that he heard Abū Hurayrah describing the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and saying, ‘He was exceedingly fair-skinned.’” This chain is sound and was not recorded by the two Imams (5).

Imām Aḥmad (6) further said: “Ḥasan narrated to us; ʿAbd Allāh ibn Lahīʿah narrated to us; Abū Yūnus Salīm ibn Jubayr—the freedman of Abū Hurayrah—narrated to us that he heard Abū Hurayrah say: ‘I have never seen anything more beautiful than the Messenger of Allah ﷺ; it was as though the sun coursed across his forehead. I have never seen anyone walk faster than the Messenger of Allah ﷺ— it was as though the earth folded itself for him. We would exert ourselves, yet he showed no strain.’”

Al-Tirmidhī (7) also recorded it from Qutaybah, from Ibn Lahīʿah, with the wording “it was as though the sun coursed across his face,” and remarked: “It is gharīb” (8).

Al-Bayhaqī (9) likewise reported it through ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Mubārak, from Rishdīn ibn Saʿd al-Mahrī, from ʿAmr ibn al-Ḥārith, from Abū Yūnus, from Abū Hurayrah, with the wording: “it was as though the sun coursed across his face.”