The soothsayer episode in Banu Sa'd

Halima al-Sa'diyya, as al-Bayhaqi relates in "Dala'il al-Nubuwwa", says that when she saw what had happened to the boy when his chest was opened, she took him to a soothsayer among the Banu Sa'd to treat him. The soothsayer heard the story from the boy himself, leapt to his feet and called for him to be killed, because he saw in him something he feared for his people. ¹

Halima refused and snatched the boy from his hand, then returned with him to Mecca. She relates that every day a trace of perfume was seen on him and two men appeared over him. ²

On the return journey she says she put him down at the Great Gate of Mecca to attend to her need, and she heard a great thud. She did not find him, and then he returned to her after she had gone looking for him. This report is among the portents in al-Bayhaqi; it is given with its chain and is not presented as a judgement on the event. ³

This incident is given here in the light of what al-Bayhaqi relates from Halima, and is to be read together with the splitting of the chest in its place.