to Allah is the fast of David. He would sleep half the night, rise for a third of it, then sleep for the remaining sixth. He fasted one day and broke the fast the next, and he never fled when meeting the enemy (1).

The Exalted says:
“Indeed, We subjected the mountains to join him in praise at dusk and at dawn, and the birds, assembled; each of them constantly turning to Him” (Ṣād 38:18–19),
as He also says:
“O mountains, echo praises with him, and you birds as well!”—that is, praise along with him.

Ibn ʿAbbās, Mujāhid, and many others explained the words “We subjected the mountains with him so that they glorified at evening and sunrise” as meaning at the end of the day and its beginning. Allah had granted him a voice of such majesty as had never been given to anyone else: when he chanted the verses of his Book, the birds would halt in mid-air, echoing his melody and glorifying with his glorification, and the mountains would answer him and praise along with him every morning and evening—may Allah’s blessings and peace be upon him.

Al-Awzāʿī (2) reported—on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿĀmir—that David was granted a beauty of voice unparalleled; birds and wild beasts would cluster around him until they died of thirst and hunger, and even rivers would come to a standstill.

Wahb ibn Munabbih said: No one heard him without beginning to hop like a partridge in dance; he recited the Psalms in a voice the ears had never heard the like of, and jinn, humans, birds, and beasts would gather round his voice until some perished from hunger.

Abū ʿAwnah al-Isfarāyinī related: Abū Bakr ibn Abī al-Dunyā told us, “Muḥammad ibn Manṣūr al-Ṭūsī said, ‘I heard Ṣubayḥ narrate to us on the authority of Barād (4)…’.” He also said: Abū al-ʿAbbās al-Madanī told us, “Muḥammad ibn Ṣāliḥ al-ʿAdawī told us, ‘Sayyār—who is Ibn Ḥātim—narrated from Jaʿfar, from Mālik, that whenever David, peace be upon him, began reciting the Psalms, the young maidens’ veils would tear.’ This is a strange report.

ʿAbd al-Razzāq narrated from Ibn Jurayj: I asked ʿAṭāʾ about reciting with melody, and he said, ‘What objection is there to that? I heard ʿUbayd ibn ʿUmayr say: David, peace be upon him, would take the mizrafa (a stringed instrument), strike it, and then recite upon it, so that it would echo his voice back to him; he aimed thereby to weep and to make others weep (5).”