Yaʿqūb ibn Sufyān also said:
Abū Bakr ibn Abī Shaybah narrated to us; ʿAbbād narrated; from Ḥajjāj; from Simāk; on the authority of Jābir ibn Samurah, who said:
Whenever I looked at the Messenger of Allah ﷺ I would think his eyes were naturally kohl-rimmed, though he had applied none. There was a slight thinness in the shins of the Messenger of Allah (1), and he never laughed except with a gentle smile (2).
Imām Aḥmad (3) said:
Wakīʿ narrated to us; Mujammaʿ ibn Yaḥyā related to me; from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿImrān al-Anṣārī, from ʿAlī—and al-Masʿūdī, from ʿUthmān ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Hurmuz, from Nāfiʿ ibn Jubayr—on the authority of ʿAlī, who said:
The Messenger of Allah was neither short nor tall. His head and beard were large, his hands and feet thick-set, and his joints broad. A rosy glow suffused his face, and a fine line of hair ran down the center of his chest. When he walked, he leaned forward with firm strides, as though uprooting his feet from rock. I have never seen anyone like him, before or after (4).
Ibn ʿAsākir (5) said: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Dāwud al-Khuraybī also transmitted this report from Mujammaʿ, but inserted an unnamed narrator between Ibn ʿImrān and ʿAlī.
He then produced the chain through ʿAmr ibn ʿAlī al-Fallās, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Dāwud: Mujammaʿ ibn Yaḥyā al-Anṣārī narrated to us, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿImrān, on the authority of an Anṣārī man who said:
I asked ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib—while he was sitting in the mosque of Kūfa, wrapped in the strap of his sword (6)—about the description of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and he replied:
He was fair-skinned with a rosy tint, large dark eyes, and straight hair. A delicate line of hair extended down his chest, his cheeks were smooth, and his beard was thick. His hair was full, and his neck shone like a silver ewer. A single line of hair ran from the hollow of his throat to his navel like a slender rod (7); apart from that, no hair covered his chest or belly. His palms and feet were thick-set; when he walked it was as though he were descending a slope, or as though uprooting his feet from rock. When he turned, he turned with his whole body. He was not tall—