He answered,

“I saw in my dream the Banū Umayyah swarming over my pulpit, one after another, and that upset me. Then I saw the Banū al-‘Abbās doing the same, and that gladdened me.” (1)

Yaʿqūb ibn Sufyān said: Muḥammad ibn Khālid ibn al-ʿAbbās related to me; al-Walīd ibn Muslim narrated to us; Abū ʿAbd Allah narrated to me from al-Walīd ibn Hishām al-Muʿīṭī, from Abān ibn al-Walīd ibn ʿUqbah ibn Abī Muʿīṭ (2), who said:

I was present when Ibn ʿAbbās came to Muʿāwiyah. Muʿāwiyah rewarded him with a handsome gift and then asked, “Abū al-ʿAbbās, will your family ever gain sovereignty?”

He replied, “Excuse me, Commander of the Believers.”

Muʿāwiyah insisted, “You must tell me.”

Ibn ʿAbbās said, “Yes.”

Muʿāwiyah asked, “Who will be your supporters?”

He answered, “The people of Khurasan—and the sons of Umayyah will receive horn-thrusts from the sons of Hāshim.” (3)

Al-Minhāl ibn ʿAmr reported—on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr—that he heard Ibn ʿAbbās say: “Three men from us, the People of the House, will appear: al-Saffāḥ, al-Manṣūr, and al-Mahdī.” Al-Bayhaqī transmitted this through several chains, and al-Aʿmash narrated it from al-Ḍaḥḥāk, from Ibn ʿAbbās, as a marfūʿ report (4).

Ibn Abī Khaythamah narrated—from Ibn Maʿīn, from Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah, from ʿAmr ibn Dīnār, from Abū Maʿbad—that Ibn ʿAbbās said, “Just as Allah began (this affair) with the first of us, I hope He will conclude it with the last of us.” The chain to him is sound, and so it has happened—and will happen—for the Mahdī, if Allah wills.

Al-Bayhaqī also narrated—from al-Ḥākim, from al-Aṣamm, from Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Jabbār, from Abū Muʿāwiyah, from al-Aʿmash, from ʿAṭiyyah, from Abū Saʿīd—that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “A man from my Household will emerge after a long lapse of time and amid widespread turmoil. He will be called al-Saffāḥ, and he will distribute wealth by the handful.” (5)