Aḥmad ibn ʿAmmār also cites him in his book “Quenching the Thirsty and Consoling the Desolate.”
Ibn Judʿān possessed an enormous serving-bowl from which a rider could eat while still mounted on his camel; on one occasion a small child fell into it and drowned.
Ibn Qutaybah and others report that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said, “More than once, during the blazing noontime heat, I sheltered in the shade of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Judʿān’s great bowl.”
In the account of Abū Jahl’s death the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) told his Companions, “Search for him among the slain; you will recognize him by a gash on his knee. He and I once crowded against each other at a banquet given by Ibn Judʿān, I pushed him, he fell on his knee and it was crushed, and the scar is still there.” They found him exactly as he had described.
People relate that Ibn Judʿān customarily served dates and sūwayq and provided milk to drink—until he heard Umayya ibn Abī al-Ṣalt recite:
I have seen the generous and what their hands bestow;
The most noble of all are the sons of Dayyān.
Fine wheat kneaded with honey is the food they offer—
Not the fare with which the sons of Judʿān beguile us.
Stung by these lines, Ibn Judʿān dispatched two thousand camels to Syria laden with wheat, honey, and clarified butter, and had a herald proclaim every night from the roof of the Kaʿba, “Come to the bowl of Ibn Judʿān!”
Of this Umayya then said:
A caller in Mecca lifts his urgent cry,
Another atop the Kaʿba makes it known:
‘To a broad dish of shīzā wood—upon it
Pure wheat kneaded together with honey!’
Even so, Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim records that ʿĀʾishah said, “O Messenger of Allah, Ibn Judʿān used to feed the people…”