Another version is found in the work of Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl al-Bukhārī, in his History. He said: “Abū Ṭalḥah related to me; Sufyān ibn Ḥamzah al-Aslamī related to us; he heard it from ʿAbd-Allāh ibn ʿĀmir al-Aslamī, from Rabīʿah ibn Aws, from Anas ibn ʿAmr, from Ahbān ibn Aws, who said, ‘I was tending my sheep when a wolf spoke to me, whereupon I accepted Islam.’”

Al-Bukhārī comments: “Its chain of transmission is not strong.”

Al-Bayhaqī also narrates—through Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī, who said: I heard al-Ḥusayn ibn Aḥmad al-Rāzī say: I heard Abū Sulaymān al-Muqriʾ say, “I was travelling in one region riding a donkey. The animal kept turning off the road, so I struck its head several times. Then it raised its head toward me and said, ‘Strike, Abū Sulaymān; it is only your own skull you are hitting.’ I asked, ‘You speak in language that can be understood?’ It replied, ‘Exactly as you speak to me, I speak to you.’”

Another report about the wolf comes from Abū Hurayrah. Saʿīd ibn Manṣūr said: Ḥabbān ibn ʿAlī related to us; ʿAbd al-Malik ibn ʿUmayr related to us, from Abū al-Adbar al-Ḥārithī, from Abū Hurayrah, who said:

“A wolf came and crouched before the Prophet ﷺ, wagging its tail. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, ‘This is the envoy of the wolves; he has come to ask you for a share of your wealth.’ They replied, ‘By Allah, we will not do that.’ One of the people picked up a stone and hurled it at the wolf, which turned away, howling. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ then remarked, ‘The wolf—what will make you grasp the reality of the wolf?’”

Al-Bayhaqī likewise recorded it, citing al-Ḥākim, who transmitted from Abū ʿAbd-Allāh al-Iṣbahānī, from Muḥammad ibn Maslamah, from Yazīd ibn Hārūn, from Shuʿbah, from ʿAbd al-Malik ibn ʿUmayr, with the same content.

Al-Ḥāfiẓ Abū Bakr al-Bazzār also narrated it—from Muḥammad ibn al-Muthannā, from Ghundar, from Shuʿbah, from ʿAbd al-Malik ibn ʿUmayr, from an unnamed man, from Makḥūl, from Abū Hurayrah—and mentioned the story. Another chain runs through Yūsuf ibn Mūsā, from Jarīr ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd, from ʿAbd al-Malik ibn ʿUmayr, from [Ziyād] Abū al-Aubar, from Abū Hurayrah, who said:

“The Messenger of Allah ﷺ once led the dawn prayer and then said, ‘The wolf—what is the wolf? He has come to ask you either to give him something or to allow him a share in your wealth.’ A man threw a stone at the wolf, which passed by—or turned away—howling.”

Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq reported—on the authority of al-Zuhrī, from Ḥamzah ibn Abī Usayd—who said: “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ went out for the funeral of a man of the Anṣār in al-Baqīʿ, and there was a wolf lying on its forelegs across the road, …”