He reached Mecca, circumambulated the House, sacrificed beside it, and shaved his head. He then remained in Mecca for six days—so they relate—slaughtering animals for the people, feeding its residents, and giving them clarified honey to drink.

In a dream he was shown that he should clothe the House, so he covered it with a coarse palm-fiber cloth. He was then shown in another dream to adorn it with something finer, so he draped it in Maʿāfirī cloth. Yet again he was shown that it should be dressed in something still better, so he clothed it with fine brocades and striped fabrics. Thus, they claim, Tubbaʿ was the first to clothe the House. He entrusted its guardianship to his governors from Jurhum, ordering them to purify it and not to allow near it any blood, carcass, or menstruating woman, and he provided it with a door and a key.

Regarding this, Subayʿah daughter of al-Aḥabb reminded her son Khālid b. ʿAbd Manāf b. Kaʿb b. Saʿd b. Taym b. Murrah b. Kaʿb b. Luʾayy b. Ghālib, warning him against tyranny in Mecca and recalling for him what had happened with Tubbaʿ there:

My son, do no wrong in Mecca—neither to the small nor to the great;
Guard its sacred precincts, my child, and let no deceiver lead you astray.
Whoever oppresses in Mecca, my son, will meet the farthest reaches of evil;
His face will be struck, my son, and scorching fire will lick his cheeks.
I have tested it, my son, and found that the oppressor there is ruined.
God has made it secure; no palaces have ever been raised upon its ground.
By God, even its birds are safe, and wild goats repose on Thabīr.
Tubbaʿ once marched against it, yet ended by clothing its walls in brocade;
My Lord humbled his kingdom there, and he fulfilled every vow—
He walked to it barefoot, and in its courtyard offered a thousand camels.