and those who disobey Allah—exalted be He. I call Allah, exalted is He, to witness before the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, for I heard him say:
“From Thaqīf there will emerge a liar and a ruthless destroyer.”
In another wording: “Two liars shall arise from Thaqīf; the second will be worse than the first, and he is the destroyer.”
At this, al-Ḥajjāj was cowed and withdrew. When the news reached ʿAbd al-Malik he wrote to him, reproaching him for the way he had addressed Asmāʾ and saying, “What business have you with the daughter of that righteous man?” (1)

Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj records in his Ṣaḥīḥ: ʿUqbah ibn Mukram narrated to us; Yaʿqūb ibn Isḥāq al-Ḥaḍramī narrated to us; al-Aswad ibn Shaybān informed us, from Abū Nufal, who said:

I saw ʿAbd Allah ibn al-Zubayr crucified on Thanīyyat al-Ḥajūn. Quraysh and the other people kept passing by him until ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿUmar came, halted, and said:
“Peace be upon you, Abū Khubayb, peace be upon you, Abū Khubayb, peace be upon you, Abū Khubayb. By Allah, I used to forbid you from this; by Allah, I used to forbid you from this; by Allah, I used to forbid you from this. By Allah, you were—as far as I knew—devout in fasting, diligent in night prayer, and one who maintained the ties of kinship. By Allah, a nation whose worst man is you is indeed a nation of goodness.”
ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿUmar then went on his way.

When al-Ḥajjāj heard that Ibn ʿUmar had stood by the body and said this, he ordered that it be taken down from the stake and thrown into the Jewish burial-ground. He then sent for Ibn al-Zubayr’s mother, Asmāʾ bint Abī Bakr, but she refused to come. He sent word again: “Come to me, or I shall send someone to drag you by your hair.” She replied, “By Allah, I will not come unless you send someone to drag me by my hair.”

Al-Ḥajjāj said, “Bring me my sandals.” He put them on and, taking short steps, went to her and said, “How have you found what I did to the enemy of Allah?”

She answered, “You have ruined his worldly life, and he has ruined your life to come. I have heard that you say, ‘O son of the woman of the two girdles!’ By Allah, I am indeed the woman of the two girdles: with one of them I used to carry up the food of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and of my father Abū Bakr; the other is the girdle that no woman can dispense with. Moreover, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ told us that among Thaqīf there is a liar and a ruthless destroyer. The liar we have already seen; as for the destroyer, I think it is none other than you.”
He rose and left her without replying. This report is found only in Muslim. (2)

Al-Wāqidī relates that when al-Ḥajjāj crucified Ibn al-Zubayr on Thanīyyat al-Ḥajūn, Asmāʾ sent to him, invoking curses upon him and asking that her son be buried. He refused until she wrote to ʿAbd al-Malik; the latter then ordered that he be buried, and so he was laid to rest at al-Ḥajūn. They reported that the fragrance of musk could be smelled wafting from his grave.

Al-Ḥajjāj had come from Syria with two thousand cavalry, and Ṭāriq ibn ʿAmr joined him with five thousand more.

Muḥammad ibn Saʿd and others narrate, with their chains, that al-Ḥajjāj besieged Ibn al-Zubayr, that forty thousand men gathered around him, and that he set up a catapult on Mount Abū Qubays in order to bombard the Sacred Mosque in which ʿAbd Allah ibn al-Zubayr was stationed. He guaranteed safety to any Meccan who came over to him and publicly proclaimed this, saying, “We have come to fight no one but Ibn al-Zubayr.” He then offered Ibn al-Zubayr three options: either to roam the land wherever he wished, to be sent in irons to Syria, or to fight on until he was killed. He consulted his mother, and she advised him to choose only the third. (3)