It is narrated from Sayyiduna Anas bin Malik (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) was sent after eight thousand prophets, of whom four thousand prophets were from the Children of Israel.

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abu Sa'id (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Indeed, I am the seal (the one who ends the line) of a thousand or even more prophets."

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) that seventy prophets have passed along the route of Fajj al-Rawha' to perform Hajj, wearing garments of wool, and seventy prophets have also prayed in Masjid al-Khayf.

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Anas bin Malik (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Among my brothers who passed before me, the number of prophets was eight thousand; then came Isa bin Maryam (peace be upon him), and then after him I was sent."

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) that when the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) came to Madinah, the Jews used to say that the total duration of this world is only seven thousand years.

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "The blessed age of Sayyiduna Adam (peace be upon him) was one thousand years." Sayyiduna Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) said that between Adam and Nuh (peace be upon them both) there was a span of one thousand years, between Nuh and Ibrahim (peace be upon them both) one thousand years, between Ibrahim and Musa (peace be upon them both) seven hundred years, between Musa and Isa (peace be upon them both) five hundred years, and between Isa (peace be upon him) and Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) a span of six hundred years. Imam al-Hakim says: I have already presented the authentic narration from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) that there is no prophet between him (peace and blessings be upon him) and Isa (peace be upon him). However, reports have been narrated concerning Khalid bin Sinan and his daughter, who came to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), and he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "O my niece! (Khalid bin Sinan) was a prophet whom his people neglected."

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) that a man of the Banu Abs, who was called Khalid bin Sinan, said to his people: I will extinguish the "Nar al-Hadathan" (a fire that was a calamity) for you. A man of his people, Umarah bin Ziyad, said: By Allah, O Khalid! You have always told us nothing but the truth, but what is this matter between you and this fire which you claim you will extinguish? So he set off, and Umarah bin Ziyad went with him taking thirty men of his people, until they reached that fire, which was coming out of a cleft in a mountain at a place called "Harrat Ashja'". Khalid drew a line around them and seated them there, and said: If I am late in returning to you, do not call me by my name. Then the fire began to come out like the manes of horses following one another. Khalid went towards it and began striking it with his staff while saying: "It has appeared, it has appeared, every guidance has appeared; the son of the goat-herdess claimed that I would not come out of this fire with my clothes wet (with water)", until he entered the cleft along with the fire. When he was late, Umarah bin Ziyad said: By Allah, if your companion were alive, he would have come out by now. The people said: He forbade us to call him by his name. But Umarah called him by his name, and he came out holding his head. He said: Did I not forbid you to call me by my name? By Allah, you have killed me. Now bury me, and when a herd of donkeys passes by you in which there is a donkey with a docked tail, dig up my grave; you will find me alive. So they buried him. Then when the herd of donkeys passed in which there was a donkey with a docked tail, the people said: Dig up his grave, for he commanded us to do this. But Umarah bin Ziyad said: Let it not be talked about among the tribe of Mudar that we dig up the graves of our dead. By Allah, we will never dig it up. Khalid bin Sinan had also told them that his wife had two tablets in the cloth of a camel-litter; whenever a matter seems difficult to you, look into them, and you will find the answer to your question. He had also said that no menstruating woman should touch them. When they returned and asked his wife about those tablets, she took them out while she was menstruating, because of which all the knowledge that was in them was lost. Simak bin Harb narrates that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was asked about him, and he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "He was a prophet whom his people neglected." And it is also narrated from Simak bin Harb that the son of Khalid bin Sinan came to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), and he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Welcome to my nephew." This hadith is sahih (authentic) on the condition of Imam Bukhari, because Abu Yunus, who narrated from Ikrimah, is Hatim bin Abi Saghirah, and both Shaykhs used him as evidence, and Imam Bukhari used as evidence every narration that is authentically established from Ikrimah. As for Khalid bin Sinan's death in this manner, there is a difference of opinion about it. I heard Abu al-Asbagh Abd al-Malik bin Nasr, Abu Uthman Sa'id bin Nasr and Abu Abdullah bin Salih al-Ma'afiri al-Andalusi (and all of them are trustworthy in my view) mentioning that between them and Qayrawan there is a great mountain in the sea which no one can climb, and that its route goes over the sea by way of the mountain. They saw at the top of that mountain, in a cave, a man wearing white woollen clothing and sitting with his knees drawn up, wrapped in white wool, his head resting on his hands as if he were asleep, and no change had come over his body. A group of the people of that region testify that he is Khalid bin Sinan, and Allah knows best. In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Now follows the mention of the accounts of the leader of the messengers and the seal of the prophets, Muhammad bin Abdullah bin Abd al-Muttalib al-Mustafa, may the blessings of Allah be upon him and upon his pure family, from his birth until his death: those accounts that are authentically established according to the standard of this book of ours, not like the reports we mentioned about the prophets before him, since we found no way of reaching those other than the conditions at the beginning of this book.