They were two deeply learned scholars. When they heard of his intention to destroy the city and its people, they said to him, “O King, do not do that. If you insist on carrying out your plan, you will surely be kept from it, and we fear that swift punishment will befall you.”

He asked them, “Why is that?”

They replied, “It is the place to which a Prophet will emigrate—one who will emerge from this Sacred Precinct, from Quraysh, at the end of time. It will be his home and place of settlement.”

So he desisted. Recognizing that they possessed true knowledge and pleased with what he had heard from them, he turned away from the city and followed their religion.

Ibn Isḥāq says: Tubbaʿ and his people were worshippers of idols. He then set out for Mecca, which lay on his road to Yemen. When he was between ʿUsfān and Ama j, a group from Hudhayl ibn Mudrika ibn Ilyās ibn Muḍar ibn Nizār ibn Maʿadd ibn ʿAdnān came to him and said, “O King, shall we direct you to an ancient treasury that previous kings have neglected, filled with pearls, emeralds, rubies, gold, and silver?”

“Yes,” he replied.

They said, “It is a House in Mecca whose people worship it and pray there.” What the Hudhayl intended was his destruction, for they knew the fate of every king who had sought to violate it and act tyrannically there.

When he resolved to do what they suggested, he summoned the two rabbis and asked them about it.

They said, “Those men want nothing but your ruin and the ruin of your army. We know of no other House of Allah that He has taken for Himself on earth but this one. If you do what they invite you to, you and all who are with you will surely perish.”

He asked, “What do you advise me to do when I arrive there?”

They replied, “Do what its people do: circumambulate it, venerate and honor it, shave your head there, and humble yourself before it until you depart.”

He said, “What keeps the two of you from doing the same?”

They answered, “By Allah, it is indeed the House of our forefather Abraham, just as we have told you. But its people have barred us from it with the idols they have set up around it and the blood they spill there; they are unclean polytheists,” or words to that effect.

Tubbaʿ recognized their sincerity and the truth of their words. He had the Hudhayl men brought close, then cut off their hands and feet, and continued on until he reached