Ahmad also narrated it immediately before this, with the same chain of transmission, except that he substituted ʿĀṣim ibn Bahdalah for Ḥuṣayn, with the wording:

“I saw Gabriel at the Lote Tree of the Utmost Boundary, and he had six hundred wings.”

He said: “I asked ʿĀṣim about the wings, but he refused to tell me.” He said: “Then one of his companions informed me that a single wing extended from east to west.” Ibn Jarīr also transmitted it (27/29).

Ḥammād ibn Salamah corroborated him in this chain, from ʿĀṣim ibn Bahdalah, except that he said: from Zirr, from Ibn Masʿūd.

It was narrated by Ahmad (1/412 and 460), al-Nasāʾī in al-Sunan al-Kubrā (6/473/11542), Ibn Jarīr as well, Ibn Khuzaymah in al-Tawḥīd (p. 133), and al-Bayhaqī in Dalāʾil al-Nubuwwah (2/372), all through Ḥammād with this wording:

“I saw Gabriel by the Lote Tree of the Utmost Boundary. He had six hundred wings, from whose feathers there scattered dazzling wonders: pearls and rubies.”

This is a good, strong chain of transmission, as Ibn Kathīr said.

Shurayk also narrated it from ʿĀṣim, from Abū Wāʾil, from ʿAbd Allāh, with the wording:

“From his wing there fell such wonders, pearls, and rubies as Allah alone knows.”

Ahmad narrated it (1/395). Shurayk is weak.

It has another route: from Isrāʾīl, from Abū Isḥāq, from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Yazīd, from ʿAbd Allāh, concerning His saying, “The heart did not lie about what it saw.” He said:

“The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, saw Gabriel in a garment of rich green fabric, filling all that lay between heaven and earth.”