Al-Zubayr said: ʿUmar b. Abī Bakr al-Muʾammilī related to me: Umayyah b. Abī Ṣalt was in search of the true religion and coveted prophethood. He travelled to Syria, and along the way he passed by a church (1). A party of Arabs—men from Quraysh and others—were with him. Umayyah said, “I have some business in this church; wait for me.” He went inside, then came out to them gloomy and pale. He threw himself to the ground, and they stayed beside him (2) until the distress left him. They then went on, attended to their affairs, and when they came back and reached the church he said, “Wait for me,” went in again, stayed a long while, and emerged in a state even worse than before.

Abū Sufyān b. Ḥarb said to him, “You have made things hard for your companions.”

He replied, “Leave me alone; I am searching for myself and seeking what will benefit me in the Hereafter (3). There is a learned monk here who told me that after Jesus there would be six great convulsions. Five have already passed and one remains. I set out hoping I might be the prophet foretold, yet fearing that it might elude me, and that is why you saw what you saw. When I came back I went to him and he said, ‘The convulsion has occurred and a prophet from among the Arabs has been sent.’ So I lost hope of prophethood, and what you witnessed overtook me because I missed what I had been hoping for (4).”

He added: al-Zuhrī said, “Umayyah once set out on a journey. They made camp, and Umayyah faced a certain direction and climbed a dune. A church was shown (5) to him, so he made his way to it; there he found an old man sitting…”