English Translation

Hashim ibn al-Qasim and Hasan ibn Musa told us, they said: Zuhayr told us, Abu al-Zubayr told us, from Jabir, who said: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, sent us, appointing Abu Ubaydah over us, to intercept a caravan of Quraysh, and he provided us with a bag of dates, finding nothing else for us. Abu Ubaydah used to give us a date at a time. I said, "What did you do with it?" He said, "We would suck on it as a baby sucks, then drink water over it, and it would suffice us for the whole day until night." He said: And we used to beat down the pounded leaves with our sticks, then moisten it with water and eat it. He said: And we proceeded along the seacoast, and there appeared to us on the seacoast something like a huge sand dune. We went to it, and it was a creature called al-'Anbar. Abu Ubaydah said, "It is a dead carcass" — Hasan ibn Musa said in his version — then he said, "No, rather we are messengers of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him" — and Hashim said in his narration: he said, "No, rather we are messengers of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, and in the cause of Allah, and you are compelled by necessity, so eat." We stayed by it for a month, being three hundred men, until we grew fat. I recall that we used to scoop out with jars the oil from the socket of its eyes, and cut from it chunks the size of a bull. Abu Ubaydah took thirteen men of us and seated them in the socket of its eye, and took one of its ribs and set it upright, then had the largest camel we had saddled, and it passed beneath it. And we took provisions of dried strips of its meat. When we arrived in Medina, we came to the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, and mentioned that to him, and he said, "It is a provision Allah, Mighty and Majestic, brought forth for you; do you have any of its meat with you, that you may feed us?" He said: So we sent some of it to the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, and he ate it.