She replied, “That was only Gabriel, peace be upon him. He would usually come to the Prophet in the likeness of a man, but on that occasion he appeared in the form in which he was created, so that he filled the whole horizon.”

Both Ṣaḥīḥ collections narrate from al-Shaybānī, who said: I asked Zur ibn Ḥubaysh about the Almighty’s words, “until he was two bow-lengths away, or even closer” (Q 53:9). He said, “Ibn Masʿūd informed me that the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—saw Gabriel, who had six hundred wings.”

Ibn Masʿūd also said—regarding the verse, “The heart did not lie about what it saw” (Q 53:11)—“He saw Gabriel, who had six hundred wings.” On the verse, “He certainly saw some of the greatest signs of his Lord” (Q 53:18), he said, “He saw Gabriel in his true form, with six hundred wings.” Al-Bukhārī, in one chain of this ḥadīth, adds: “He saw a green rafraf that had filled the horizon.” Another narration from ʿAbdullāh states with the same verse, “He saw a green rafraf that had filled the horizon.”

In Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim it is related from Abū Hurayrah concerning the verse, “And indeed he saw him yet another time” (Q 53:13), that he said, “He saw Gabriel.”

The Exalted also says:
“Indeed, it is the word of a noble messenger, endowed with power, held in honor by the Lord of the Throne, obeyed there and trustworthy. Your companion has not gone mad. He certainly saw him on the clear horizon. And he is not miserly with the unseen. Nor is it the word of an accursed devil.” (Q 81:19-25)

Here Allah makes it clear that the messenger who brought the revelation to Muḥammad is “a noble messenger, endowed with power, firmly established in the presence of the Lord of the Throne, obeyed there and trustworthy.” Such a description can never apply to a mere product of the imagination or to the so-called Active Intellect, for the text affirms that he is “obeyed,” and the one who is obeyed is above the heavens, not something internal to the human psyche.

Likewise His words, “The trustworthy Spirit has brought it down upon your heart” (Q 26:193-194), and, “Whoever is an enemy to Gabriel—it is he who has brought it down upon your heart by Allah’s permission, confirming what came before it, as guidance and good news for the believers. Whoever is an enemy to Allah, His angels, His messengers, Gabriel, and Michael—then Allah is the enemy of the disbelievers” (Q 2:97-98), and His saying, “When We substitute one revelation in place of another—and Allah knows best what He sends down…” (Q 16:101).