and it was not long before she returned, licking her muzzle. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ tied her once more to the tent. Soon the Bedouin arrived carrying a waterskin. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ asked him, “Will you sell her to me?” He replied, “She is yours, O Messenger of Allah.” The Prophet ﷺ thereupon set her free.

Zayd ibn Arqam said, “By Allah, I myself saw her wandering through the open desert proclaiming, ‘There is no god but Allah; Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah.’ ”

Abū Nuʿaym also transmitted this report, stating: Abū ʿAlī Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥasan ibn Maṭar related to us; Bishr ibn Mūsā narrated it—and he mentioned the story. I (the author) say: Part of it is objectionable, and Allah knows best.

We have already cited in the chapter on his multiplication of milk ﷺ the ḥadīth of the ewe that came from the wilderness. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ ordered al-Ḥasan ibn Saʿīd, the client of Abū Bakr, to milk her, and he did so. He then told him to keep an eye on her, but she slipped away unnoticed. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “The One who brought her has taken her away.” This narration is reported through two separate chains, each from a different Companion, as noted above. Allah knows best.

The ḥadīth of the desert lizard, despite its strangeness and problematic elements:

Al-Bayhaqī said: Abū Manṣūr Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī al-Dāmghānī, a resident of the village of Nāmin in the Bayhaq district, informed us—this was read to him from the original copy of his book. He said: Abū Aḥmad ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAdī al-Ḥāfiẓ related to us in Shaʿbān of the year 362 AH at Jurjān; Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn al-Walīd al-Sulamī narrated to us; Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā narrated to us; Maʿmar ibn Sulaymān narrated to us; Kihmis narrated to us, from Dāwūd ibn Abī Hind, from ʿĀmir, from Ibn ʿUmar, from ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb:

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ was sitting with a company of his Companions when a Bedouin of Banū Sulaym arrived. He had caught a desert lizard and placed it inside his sleeve so he could take it back to his camp, roast it, and eat it. Seeing the gathering, he asked, “What is this?” They said, “This is the one who claims to be a prophet.” The man pushed his way through the people and said, “By al-Lāt and al-ʿUzzā, no woman has ever borne a man whose speech is more detestable or more loathsome to me than yours. Were it not that my tribe would label me rash, I would have hastened to kill you now, and by your death I would please the black, the red, the white, and everyone else.”