16209 - My father narrated to us, Ibn 'Umar narrated to us, he said: Sufyan said: "If the son of David (Solomon) had not accepted it in the way that was befitting, the earth would have swallowed him up five hundred fathoms deep when the ant said: 'O ants, enter your dwellings.'" He said: "So he smiled, laughing at its speech, and said: 'My Lord, enable me to be grateful for Your favor which You have bestowed upon me' [the verse]. Then a man, a plowman among the plowmen, said to him: 'I am, by my own power, more grateful to You than you are.'" He said: "So he fell from his horse in prostration and said: 'Were it not that it would be...'" Ibn 'Umar said: "Then Sufyan said a word I did not understand: 'I would have said: Strip from me what You have given me.'" He said: "The remembrance of Allah used to occupy him from speaking."

His saying (Exalted is He): "And admit me by Your mercy into [the ranks of] Your righteous servants."

16210 - Abu Yazid al-Qaratisi informed us in what he wrote to me, Asbagh informed us, he said: I heard 'Abd al-Rahman ibn Zayd saying: "'And admit me by Your mercy into [the ranks of] Your righteous servants,'" he said: "With the righteous, with the prophets and the believers."

His saying (Exalted is He): "And he inspected the birds."

16211 - My father narrated to us, 'Abd al-A'la ibn Hammad al-Narsi narrated to us, Wuhayb narrated to us, Ibn Khaytham informed us, from Mujahid, from Ibn 'Abbas, he said: "Do you know how Solomon inspected the hoopoe? Solomon, when he was in the wilderness of the earth, would call the hoopoe." Nafi' ibn al-Azraq said: "O Ibn 'Abbas, the young boys take a thread and bury it, then the hoopoe comes and puts its neck in it and they catch it." He said: "Woe to you, O Nafi'! Did you not know that when the decree (qadar) comes, caution (hadhar) departs?"

16212 - It is mentioned from Abu Sa'id al-Ashaj, Abu Usamah narrated to us, from Usamah ibn Zayd, from 'Ikrimah, he said: Ibn 'Abbas was asked: "How did Solomon inspect the hoopoe from among the birds?" He said: "Solomon stopped at a place, and he did not know the distance of the water. The hoopoe was an engineer, and he wanted to ask him about it, but he missed him." I said: "How can it be an engineer when a boy sets a trap for it, hides it, and catches it?" He said: "When the decree comes, it comes between the eye and the sight."

16213 - Abu Zur'ah narrated to us, Safwan ibn Salih narrated to us, al-Walid narrated to us, Sa'id ibn Bashir narrated to us, from Abu Bishr Ja'far ibn Abi Wahshiyyah, from Yusuf ibn Mahak, that he narrated to them: That Ibn al-Azraq—meaning Nafi', the companion of the Azariqah—used to come to 'Abdullah ibn 'Abbas, and when Ibn 'Abbas would issue a legal opinion..."