It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Amr bin al-As (may Allah be pleased with them both); he said: We travelled with Sayyiduna Umar bin al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) on his last journey to Syria. When he drew near to Syria, he was informed that plague had spread there. It was said to him: O Amir al-Mu'minin, it is not proper for you to enter into this epidemic, just as, if you were there and the plague broke out, you should not leave it. So he turned back towards Madinah. The narrator said: We were travelling at night when he said to me: "Move off to one side of the road." He moved aside and I moved aside too. Then he dismounted from his mount, placed his head on the foreleg of his camel and slept, but I could not sleep. Then (on waking) he began to say: "What have I to do with those (people) who turned me back from Syria!" Then he mounted, and I did not ask him anything until, when I felt that we were about to reach the settled people, I said to him: Why did you say what you said when you woke from your sleep? He said: "Indeed, I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) saying: 'Seventy thousand people will be raised up from the red soft ground between the wall of Hims and the olive trees, upon whom there will be no reckoning.' And if Allah brings me back safely from this journey, I will certainly take my family, my dependants and my wealth and settle in Hims." The narrator said: Then he returned from that journey and (some time later) was martyred, may Allah's pleasure be upon him. This hadith has an authentic (sahih) chain, but the two Shaykhs (Bukhari and Muslim) did not record it.