The Prophet then said, “So perhaps you drank it!” (1)
“Yes,” he answered. The Prophet replied, “The Fire shall not touch you except in fulfilment of an oath; woe to you from the people, and woe to the people from you.” (2)

Muḥammad ibn Saʿd said (3): Musallam ibn Ibrāhīm told us, al-Ḥārith ibn ʿUbayd narrated to us, Abū ʿImrān al-Jawnī narrated that Nawf used to say, “I find in the revealed Book of Allah that Ibn al-Zubayr is the champion horseman of the caliphs.”

Ḥammād ibn Zayd reported, on the authority of Thābit al-Bunānī: “I would pass by ʿAbd Allah ibn al-Zubayr while he was praying behind the Maqām (the Station of Abraham) and he was like an upright stake—utterly motionless.”

Al-Aʿmash related, from Yaḥyā ibn Waththāb: “Whenever Ibn al-Zubayr prostrated, the sparrows would land on his back, climbing up and down; you would have thought him a piece of a wall.” (4)

Another said: “Ibn al-Zubayr would stand the whole night in prayer until dawn, bow the whole night until dawn, and prostrate the whole night until dawn.”

Someone reported: “One day Ibn al-Zubayr bowed in prayer and I recited al-Baqarah, Āl ʿImrān, al-Nisāʾ and al-Māʾidah, yet he did not raise his head.”

ʿAbd al-Razzāq transmitted, from Ibn Jurayj, from ʿAṭāʾ: “Whenever I saw Ibn al-Zubayr pray he was like a solid block, perfectly still”—and this wording is Thābit’s version. (5)

Aḥmad said: “ʿAbd al-Razzāq learned the prayer from Ibn Jurayj, Ibn Jurayj from ʿAṭāʾ, ʿAṭāʾ from Ibn al-Zubayr, Ibn al-Zubayr from al-Ṣiddīq, and al-Ṣiddīq from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.”

Al-Ḥumaydī narrated, from Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah, from Hishām ibn ʿUrwah, from Ibn al-Munkadir, who said: “Had you seen Ibn al-Zubayr in prayer, he was like a branch of a tree swaying in the wind, while catapult stones were landing here and there.” Sufyān commented, “It was as though he paid them no attention [and did not consider them anything].”

Someone told ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz that a stone hurled by a catapult struck the parapet of the mosque, a shard flew off and passed between Ibn al-Zubayr’s beard and throat, yet he did not move from his place, nor was any change seen in his appearance. ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz said, “There is no god but Allah! That is exactly as he has been described.” (6)