This transmission is rare through this route; the two Shaykhs did not record it, yet its chain is sound.

Muḥammad ibn Saʿd (1) relates—through Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Fudayk, from Mūsā ibn Yaʿqūb al-Zumaʿī, from Sahl, the freedman of ʿUtaybah—that Sahl was originally a Christian from the people of Mirīs and had been brought up in the care of his mother and his uncle. He said:

“One day I was reading my uncle’s codex and found in it a loose page written in a different hand. On that page was the description of Muḥammad ﷺ:

He is neither short nor tall, fair-skinned, with two plaits; between his shoulders is the Seal; he often sits clasping his knees; he does not accept charity; he rides the donkey and the camel; he milks the sheep; he wears a patched shirt. Whoever does this is free of arrogance. He is of the descendants of Ishmael, and his name is Aḥmad.

When my uncle came and saw that I had read it, he struck me and said, ‘Why did you open this page?’ I replied, ‘It contains the description of Aḥmad.’ He said, ‘He has not yet appeared.’”

Imām Aḥmad (2) said: Ismāʿīl narrated to us; Ayyūb narrated to us, from ʿAmr ibn Saʿīd, from Anas, who said, “I never saw anyone more compassionate toward children than the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.” He then mentioned the remainder of the report. Muslim (3) also transmitted it through Zuhayr ibn Ḥarb, from Ismāʿīl ibn ʿUlayyah.

Al-Tirmidhī states in al-Shamāʾil (4): Maḥmūd ibn Ghīlān narrated to us; Abū Dāwūd narrated to us, from Shuʿbah, from al-Ashʿath ibn Sulaym, who said: I heard my aunt report from her uncle:

“While I was walking in Madinah, someone behind me said, ‘Lift your lower garment; it is cleaner and will last longer.’ It turned out to be the Messenger of Allah. I said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, it is only a mottled mantle.’ He replied, ‘Do you not have in me an example to follow?’ I looked and saw that his waist-wrapper reached halfway down his shins.”

He then said (5): Suwayd ibn Naṣr narrated to us; ʿAbdullāh ibn al-Mubārak narrated to us, from Mūsā ibn ʿUbaydah, from Iyās ibn Salamah, from his father, who said: “ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān used to wear his waist-wrapper halfway down his shins, saying, ‘Such was the izār of my Companion ﷺ.’”

He also said (6): Yūsuf ibn ʿĪsā narrated to us; Wakīʿ narrated to us; al-Rabīʿ ibn Ṣabīḥ narrated to us; Yazīd ibn Abān narrated to us, from Anas ibn Mālik, who said: “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ would often drape his garment over his head, so that his clothing looked like that of an oil merchant.” (7)