It is narrated from Sayyiduna Utbah bin Abd (may Allah be pleased with him) that a man asked the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him): O Messenger of Allah, how did the matter of your prophethood begin? He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "The woman who nursed and raised me was from Banu Sa'd bin Bakr. Her son and I went out with our animals, and we had no provisions with us. So I said: O my brother, go and bring us some food from our mother. My brother went, and I stayed with the animals. Suddenly two white birds came, looking like vultures. One of them said to his companion: Is this the one? He said: Yes. Then both of them rushed towards me, seized me, laid me down on my back and split open my belly. Then they took out my heart, split it as well, and removed two black clots from it. Then one of them said to his companion: Stitch it up and place the Seal of Prophethood on it. Then one said to the other: Put him in one pan of the scale and put a thousand of his nation in the other pan. I saw that those thousand people were above me, and I feared that they would fall on me. Then both of them said: Even if his whole nation were weighed against him, he would outweigh them. Then they left me and went away, and I was extremely frightened. Then I went to my mother and told her all that I had seen. She feared that something might have afflicted me, and she said: I place you under the protection of Allah. Then she saddled her camel, seated me on it, and rode behind me herself until we reached my mother. She said: I have discharged my trust and my responsibility, and she told her all that had happened to me. But my mother was not alarmed by it at all, and she said: I saw that a light came out of me by which the palaces of Syria were lit up." This hadith is sahih (authentic) on the condition of Muslim, but the two Shaykhs (Bukhari and Muslim) did not record it.