He assigned a separate stick for each Name. When he had finished, he lit a fire and began to throw the sticks into it, one by one. As soon as he came to the stick on which the Greatest Name was written and cast it in, the stick leapt straight back out, entirely unharmed. He picked it up, went to his mentor, and told him that he now knew the Greatest Name the man had withheld.

The mentor asked, “And what is it?”

He replied, “It is such-and-such.”

The mentor said, “How did you learn it?” So he related what he had done.

The man said, “My nephew, you have indeed hit upon it. Keep it to yourself—though I fear you will not.”

After that, whenever ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Thāmir entered Najrān he would not meet anyone who was afflicted except that he said to him, “O servant of Allah, will you affirm Allah’s oneness, enter my religion, and let me supplicate Allah for you so that He cures you of this trial of yours?” If the person said yes, he would declare Allah One, embrace Islam, ʿAbd Allāh would pray for him, and he would be healed. This went on until there was no one in Najrān suffering any ailment who did not come to him, follow his call, and find relief, to the point that news of him reached the king of Najrān.

The king summoned him and said, “You have corrupted the people of my town, opposed my religion and the religion of my forefathers; I shall surely make an example of you.”

He replied, “You will not be able to do that.”

The king had him taken up the high mountain and thrown from its summit, yet he reached the ground without harm. He then ordered him cast into the deep waters of Najrān—pools in which nothing survives—yet he came out unhurt. When the king could do nothing with him, ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Thāmir said, “By Allah, you will never be able to kill me until you affirm the oneness of Allah and believe in what I believe. If you do that, you will be given power over me and will kill me.”

So the king affirmed Allah’s oneness and uttered the testimony of ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Thāmir. He then struck him with the staff in his hand, inflicting only a small wound, yet it killed him; the king himself died on the spot. The people of Najrān then united upon the religion of ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Thāmir—a faith that conformed to what Jesus, son of Mary, had brought in the Gospel and its rulings—until the same alterations that overtook others of their creed later overtook them. From that point the Christian religion in Najrān took its origin.

Ibn Isḥāq said, “This is the report of Muḥammad ibn Kaʿb and some of the people of Najrān concerning ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Thāmir. Allah knows best which account is correct.”

He went on: “Dhū Nuwās then advanced against them with his army, summoned them to Judaism, and gave them the choice between that or death. They chose death, so he dug the trenches, burned some with fire, slew others with the sword, mutilated them—and killed nearly twenty thousand of them.”