An Account (1) of Daniel, peace be upon him

Ibn Abī al-Dunyā relates:
Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā al-Shaybānī told us—if I did not hear it directly from Shuʿayb ibn Ṣafwān, then one of our companions transmitted it from him—on the authority of al-Ajlaḥ al-Kindī, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī al-Hadhayl, who said:

Nebuchadnezzar loosed two lions, drove them into a pit, and then threw Daniel in on top of them; yet they did not so much as stir against him (2). Daniel remained there as long as Allah willed. Eventually he felt the normal human need for food and drink, so Allah revealed to Jeremiah—who was then in Greater Syria—to prepare provisions for Daniel.
Jeremiah said, “My Lord, I am in the Holy Land while Daniel is in Babylon in the land of Iraq.”
Allah revealed to him, “Prepare what We have commanded you, for We shall send someone to carry you and what you have prepared.”
Jeremiah obeyed; Allah sent one who carried him together with the provisions until he stood above the mouth of the pit.

He called out, “Daniel! Daniel!”
Daniel replied, “Who is this?”
He said, “I am Jeremiah.”
Daniel asked, “What has brought you here?”
Jeremiah answered, “Your Lord has sent me to you.”
Daniel said, “Has my Lord remembered me?”
He replied, “Yes.”
Thereupon Daniel proclaimed:

“Praise be to Allah, who does not forget the one who remembers Him.
Praise be to Allah, who never disappoints those who place their hope in Him.
Praise be to Allah, who, when one trusts in Him, does not consign him to another.
Praise be to Allah, who rewards goodness with goodness.
Praise be to Allah, who grants deliverance in return for patience.
Praise be to Allah, who removes our hardship after our anguish.
Praise be to Allah, who safeguards us when we begin to doubt the worth of our deeds.
Praise be to Allah, who remains our hope when every stratagem fails.”

(The narrator adds:) I did not find that he mentioned whether Jeremiah actually delivered the food Daniel desired (3).

Yūnus ibn Bukayr narrates, from Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq, from Abū Khalda Khālid ibn Dīnār (4):

Abū ʿĀliyah told us:
“When we conquered Tustar, we found in the treasury of al-Hurmuzān a couch on which a dead man lay. At his head was a manuscript. We took the manuscript to ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, who summoned Kaʿb and had him render it into Arabic. I was the first Arab to read it; I read it just as I recite this Qur’an.

“I asked Abū ʿĀliyah, ‘What was in it?’
He replied, ‘It contained your histories, your affairs, the modes of your speech, and what will occur after you.’

“I asked, ‘What did you do with the man?’
He said, ‘In the daytime we dug thirteen widely scattered graves; then, at night, we buried him and leveled all the graves so as to conceal him from the people, lest they exhume him.’

“I asked, ‘What did they hope to gain from him?’
He said, ‘Whenever the sky withheld rain from them, they would bring out his bier and rain would fall.’

“I asked, ‘Whom did you think the man was?’
He said, ‘A man called Daniel.’”