- "When the Children of Israel experienced a long period and their hearts hardened, they invented a book from themselves, which their hearts were drawn to and their tongues found palatable. The truth stood between them and many of their desires, until they cast the Book of Allāh behind their backs as if they did not know. They said: (original: it said) Present this book to the Children of Israel; if they follow you in it, leave them be, but if they oppose you, kill them. He said: No, rather send for so-and-so - a man from their scholars - if he follows you, then no one will differ with you after him. So they sent for him and invited him. He took a sheet and wrote the Book of Allāh on it, then placed it in a horn, hung it around his neck, and wore clothes over it. Then he came to them, and they presented the book to him and said: Do you believe in this? He pointed to his chest - meaning the book in the horn - and said: I believe in this, and why should I not believe in this? So they let him go. He said: He had companions who used to visit him, and when death approached him, they came to him. When they removed his clothes, they found the horn with the book inside it. They said: Do you not see his words: I believe in this, and why should I not believe in this? He only meant by 'this' the book in the horn. He said: The Children of Israel then divided into over seventy sects, the best of their sects being the companions of the man with the horn. It was narrated by al-Bayhaqī in "Shuʿab al-Īmān" (2/439/1-2): Abū Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf al-Iṣbahānī informed us, Abū Saʿīd ibn al-Aʿrābī narrated to us, Saʿdān ibn Naṣr narrated to us: Abū Muʿāwiyah from al-Aʿmash from ʿUmārah from Rabīʿ ibn ʿAmīlah said: ʿAbd Allāh narrated to us, we did not hear..