2364 – ʿĪsā ibn ʿAlī informed us; he said: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad al-Baghawī narrated to us; he said: Nuʿaym ibn Haysam narrated to us; he said: Khalaf ibn Tamīm narrated to us …

2365 – And ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿUmar likewise informed us; he said: Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Yaʿqūb narrated to us; he said: my grandfather Yaʿqūb narrated to us; he said: Khalaf ibn Tamīm narrated to us; he said: ʿUmayr Abū al-Ḥubāb, from ʿAmmār ibn Sayf al-Ḍabbī, who said:

“We set out on a naval campaign with Mūsā ibn Kaʿb as our commander. A man on board, known as Abū Ḥimmān, began cursing Abū Bakr and ʿUmar. We forbade him, but he would not desist; we rebuked him, yet he remained defiant.

When we reached an island in the sea, we brought the vessel alongside it and disembarked. We then scattered to perform our ablution for the ẓuhr (noon) prayer. Presently we were informed that a swarm of dabr—that is, hornets—had descended upon Abū Ḥimmān and killed him. I went to him and found him already dead.

Khalaf ibn Tamīm said: Najdah ibn al-Mubārak al-Sulamī added the following to me in this report ⦗1330⦘: “I heard Abū al-Ḥubāb recount the incident. He told the people, who were astonished and said, ‘Those insects were acting under orders.’” Najdah continued: “Some men then came to dig his grave, but the ground became rough and solid; we were unable to dig for him, so we covered him with stones and leaves.”

The wording above is that of Yaʿqūb. Ibn Manīʿ added in his version: Khalaf said, “One of our companions was urinating when a bee alighted on his private part yet did him no harm, and we knew that it, too, had been commanded.”