The Monks and the Three Signs

In al-Sham Salman served a bishop who proved to be dishonest: he collected charity for the poor and stored it for himself. When the bishop died, Salman showed the people the hoard and they refused to bury him in honour. He then served a righteous man and stayed with him until his death.

That man directed him to another, and that one to another, in Mosul, Nisibis and finally Amuriyah. Each time, as his master was dying, Salman asked whom to follow. The last told him that the time of a prophet was near: he would come from Arabia, to a land of date palms between two lava plains. He would accept gifts but not charity, and between his shoulders there would be a seal of prophethood.

Salman travelled with some Arabs of Kalb who promised to take him to Arabia, but betrayed him and sold him as a slave. He was bought by a Jew of Banu Qurayzah and taken to Madinah. When he saw the palms and the land, he knew it matched the description.