Jibreel was sitting with the Prophet ﷺ when he looked up at the sky and saw an angel descending. Jibreel said, "This angel has never come down before today, from the day he was created until now."When the angel descended, he said, "Muhammad, your Lord has sent me to you. Shall He make you a prophet-king, or a servant-messenger?"Jibreel said, "Humble yourself before your Lord, Muhammad."He replied, "Rather, a servant-messenger."
حدثنا محمد بن فضيل عن عمارة عن أبي زرعة قال ولا أعلمه إلا
جلس جبريل إلى النبي ﷺ فنظر إلى السماء فإذا ملك ينزل فقال جبريل إن هذا الملك ما نزل منذ يوم خلق قبل الساعة فلما نزل قال يا محمد أرسلني إليك ربك قال أفملكا نبيا يجعلك أو عبدا رسولا قال جبريل تواضع لربك يا محمد قال بل عبدا رسولا
Its chain of transmission is sahih. Haythami mentioned it in Majma al-Zawaid 18:9–19, and said, "Ahmad, Bazzar, and Abu Yaala narrated it, and the narrators of the first two are the narrators of the Sahih." He did not mention in it the statement of Abu Zura, "I do not know it except from Abu Hurairah," which gives the impression that he was uncertain about its being connected (mawsul). But even if this is so, it does not affect the soundness of the hadith, because he was only reporting his predominant opinion, one close to certainty, and a strong predominant opinion of this kind is sufficient. Haythami's omission of this indicates that it is narrated with certainty from Abu Hurairah in Bazzar and Abu Yaala, or in one of them.Ibn Kathir quoted it in Tarikh 6:48 from this very place in the Musnad, except that the copy of the Musnad available to him had a gap at the end of the hadith, starting from the words, "Jibreel said, 'Be humble...'" and so on. After quoting it incomplete, Ibn Kathir said, "This is how I found it in the copy of the Musnad that I have, ending abruptly, and it is among the reports unique to this chain," meaning that none of the authors of the Six Books narrated it. This omission is present in full here in the three source manuscripts and in Majma al-Zawaid as well.