The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said:

“I entered Paradise and there I saw two great trees set aside for Zayd ibn ʿAmr ibn Nufayl.” (1)

Its chain of transmission is sound, and this ḥadīth is not found in any of the well-known collections.

Among the poetry of Zayd ibn ʿAmr ibn Nufayl—which we cited earlier in ‘The Beginning of Creation’—are the following verses:

[from the Ṭawīl metre]

To God I offer my praise and my laud,
A noble word that abides for all time;

To the Sovereign Most High, above whom there is none—
No deity, no lord can draw near His sublime. (2)

It has also been said that these lines belong to Umayyah ibn Abī al-Ṣalt; Allah knows best.

Further verses on pure monotheism, related by Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq, al-Zubayr ibn Bakkār, and others, read:

[from the Mutaqārib metre]

I have surrendered my face to Him to whom
The earth submits, bearing boulders immense;
He spread it wide, then set it firm and level,
And anchored upon it the mountains, dense.

I have surrendered my face to Him to whom
The rain clouds yield, carrying water sweet;
When driven toward a land, they obey His command
And pour down showers in generous sheet.

I have surrendered my face to Him to whom
The winds submit, turning this way and that,
By His decree, in ever-changing states,
Obedient to His rule in every spat.

Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq also said: Hishām ibn ʿUrwah told me that his father narrated the following words of Zayd ibn ʿAmr:

[from the Wāfir metre]

Is it one Lord—or a thousand—
Whom I should serve when affairs are split?

I have cast aside al-Lāt and al-ʿUzzā alike;
Thus acts the steadfast man of grit.

I worship not al-ʿUzzā nor her two daughters,
Nor do I visit the idols of Banī ʿAmr’s clan;

Nor do I revere Hubal, though once he was deemed
Our lord in days when my reason was scant. (3)

I marvel—nights hold wonders, indeed,
And days reveal them to the discerning man.