He (the Prophet ﷺ) said, “Go and see whether there is anything left in his water-skins.”

So I went to him, examined the skins, and found nothing in them except a single drop clinging to the mouth of one skin—so little that, had I poured it out, a cat could have lapped it up. I returned to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and said, “O Messenger of Allah, I found nothing in them but one drop at the neck of a skin; if I had tipped it out, a cat would have drunk it.”

He replied, “Go back and bring it to me.” I brought it, and he took it in his hand, uttering words I could not make out while gently pressing the skin. Then he handed it to me and said, “O Jābir, call for a large basin.” I called, “Bring the caravan basin!” It was carried over and set before him. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ placed his hand in the basin like this—spreading it and separating his fingers—then rested it on the bottom of the bowl and said, “Take, O Jābir, pour over me and say, ‘In the name of Allah.’”

I poured over his hand, saying, “In the name of Allah,” and I saw water gush from between the fingers of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. The basin frothed and swirled until it was full. He then said, “O Jābir, call out: whoever needs water, let him come.” The people came, drew water, and drank until they were satisfied. I asked, “Is there anyone who still needs it?” Then the Messenger of Allah ﷺ lifted his hand from the basin while it was still full.

The people later complained to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ of hunger, and he said, “Perhaps Allah will feed you.” We reached the seashore, and with a single command he caused the sea to cast up a creature. We lit a fire on one of its flanks, cooked it, roasted it, ate, and were filled. Jābir said, “I and so-and-so, so-and-so, and so-and-so—five of us in all—entered its eye socket, and no one outside could see us. When we came out, we took one of its ribs and bent it into a bow. Then we called for the tallest man in the caravan, the largest camel in the caravan, and the biggest saddle; he walked beneath that rib without having to lower his head.”

Al-Bukhārī reports: Mūsā ibn Ismāʿīl narrated to us, ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Muslim narrated to us, Ḥuṣayn narrated to us from Sālim ibn Abī al-Jaʿd, from Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh, who said: “On the day of al-Ḥudaybiyyah the people became thirsty while the Prophet ﷺ had before him a small leather bucket from which he was performing wudūʾ. The people crowded around him, and he asked, ‘What is the matter with you?’ They said, ‘We have no water for ablution or drinking except what is with you.’ He put his hand into the bucket, and water began to spring from between his fingers like fountains. We drank and performed wudūʾ.”

I asked, “How many were you?” He replied, “Had we been a hundred thousand it would have sufficed us; we were fifteen hundred.”

Muslim relates the same report through Ḥuṣayn, and both of them transmit it as well through al-Aʿmash. Muslim adds the chain of Shuʿbah; all three narrate from Sālim, from Jābir. In the version of al-Aʿmash we were fourteen hundred.