The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, "I have been commanded to a town that devours other towns. The people call it Yathrib, but it is Madinah. It expels people just as the bellows expels the impurities of iron."
قال رسول الله ﷺ قال: أمرت بقرية تأكل القرى، يقولون: يثرب وهي المدينة، تنفي الناس كما ينفى الكير خبث الحديد.
Malik narrated it in Al-Jami (5) from Yahya bin Saeed, who said, "I heard Abu Hubab Saeed bin Yasar say, 'I heard Abu Hurairah say...'" and then he mentioned it.Bukhari also narrated it in the Chapters on the Virtues of Madinah (1871), and Muslim in the Book of Hajj (1328:488), both of them through the route of Malik, with the same wording.