(and it kept swelling)
They ate and then left, group after group; and when everyone had finished, there remained in the wooden bowl almost the same amount I had first brought. He then said,
“Set it before Zaynab.”
So I went out and lowered over them a door woven from palm-fronds for privacy.
Thābit related: We asked, “Abū Ḥamzah, how many do you think ate from that bowl?” He replied, “I reckon seventy-one, or perhaps seventy-two.”
This narration is unique through this chain, and the two Shaykhs did not record it.
Another report on the subject from Abū Hurayrah:
Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad al-Firyābī narrated to us: ʿUthmān ibn Abī Shaybah narrated to us; Ḥātim ibn Ismāʿīl, from Anīs ibn Abī Yaḥyā, from Isḥāq ibn Sālim, from Abū Hurayrah—may Allah be pleased with him—who said:
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ came out to me and said, “Call for me your companions from the People of the Ṣuffah.” I started waking them, one man after another, until I had gathered them all. We then went to the door of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and sought permission, and he allowed us in.
Abū Hurayrah continued: A platter was set before us in which, as I estimated, there was about one mudd of barley. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ placed his hand upon it and said, “Eat, in the name of Allah.” We ate as much as we wished and then withdrew our hands.
When the platter was first placed down, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “By Him in Whose hand is my soul, the family of Muḥammad has not had any food this evening except what you now see.”
Someone asked Abū Hurayrah, “How much remained in the platter when you had finished?” He said, “The same amount that was in it when it was first set down, except for the marks of our fingers.”
This episode is different from the earlier account of the People of the Ṣuffah drinking milk, as we have already mentioned.
Another narration from Abū Ayyūb:
Jaʿfar al-Firyābī narrated to us: Abū Salamah Yaḥyā ibn Khalaf, ʿAbd al-Aʿlā, Saʿīd al-Jarīrī, Abū al-Ward, Abū Muḥammad al-Ḥaḍramī, from Abū Ayyūb al-Anṣārī—may Allah be pleased with him—who said:
I prepared for the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and for Abū Bakr a meal sufficient for the two of them, and I brought it to them. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ then said,
“Go and invite for me thirty of the leaders of the Anṣār.”