and he marched until he reached the fort of Bosra. He found the Companions already fighting it, whereupon its governor made peace with him and handed the city over; it was the first town in Syria to be taken—praise be to Allah.

Khalid then dispatched the one-fifth share of the spoils seized from Ghassan with Bilal ibn al-Harith al-Muzani to al-Siddiq.

(After that he, together with Abu ʿUbaydah, Marthad, and Shurahbil, set out toward ʿAmr ibn al-ʿAs—the Byzantines having advanced against him in the land of al-ʿAraba near al-Maʿur—thus occurred the Battle of Ajnadayn.)

A man from among the Muslims composed the following rajaz verse during that march with Khalid (1):

By Allah, what (2) keen eyes Rafiʿ possessed—how rightly he was guided!
He led us from Qurāqir all the way to Suwā;
Five stages that would have made any army weep,
A route, I think, no mortal before you had ever trodden.

One of the Arabs had said to Khalid on that march, “If by morning you reach such-and-such a tree, you and those with you will be saved; but if you fail to reach it, you and those with you will perish.” Khalid therefore pressed on with his men, making an arduous night march, and at dawn they reached the tree. Khalid then remarked, “At daybreak people praise the night’s journey.” He thereby coined a proverb, and he was the first to utter it (may Allah be pleased with him).

(According to others besides Ibn Isḥaq—such as Sayf ibn ʿUmar, Abū Mikhnaf, and others who complete the first narrative: when the Byzantines gathered with their commanders at al-Wāqūṣah) the Companions left the position they had occupied and camped close to the Byzantines on the only road available to them.

ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀs said, “Rejoice, people, for—by Allah—the Byzantines are now hemmed in, and a besieged enemy never receives any good.”

It is also related that when the Companions assembled to consult about how to march against the Byzantines, the commanders sat together and Abū Sufyān entered, saying, “I never thought I would live long enough to see a force preparing for battle without my being present.” He advised that the army be divided into three parts: one-third would advance and camp opposite the Byzantines; another third would escort the baggage and the families; while Khalid would remain with the final third. When the baggage reached the first contingent, he would follow after them and they would encamp with open wilderness behind them so that dispatches and reinforcements could reach (them). They carried out his counsel—and what excellent advice it was.

Al-Walid related—through Ṣafwān, from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Jubayr—that the Byzantines encamped between Dayr Ayyub and the Yarmūk, while the Muslims camped on the far bank of the river, with Adhruʿāt behind them so that reinforcements from Madinah could reach them. It is said that Khalid did not arrive until after the Companions had already taken up positions opposite the Byzantines, having stood firm—and effectively besieged them—throughout the entire month of Rabiʿ al-Awwal. When that month ended and battle became possible because the water supply had dwindled, they dispatched