One day the Messenger of Allah ﷺ mounted me behind him and confided to me something that I shall never tell to anyone. The most preferred screen the Messenger of Allah ﷺ used when relieving himself was a mound or a cluster of date palms.He entered the walled garden of a man from the Ansar, and there was a camel inside. When the camel saw the Prophet ﷺ, it groaned and its eyes flowed with tears. The Prophet ﷺ approached it and stroked behind its ears, and it fell silent.Then he asked, "Who is the owner of this camel? Whose camel is this?"A young man from the Ansar came forward and said, "It is mine, Messenger of Allah."He said, "Do you not fear Allah regarding this animal which Allah has placed in your possession? It has complained to me that you starve it and overwork it."
أردفني رسول الله ﷺ خلفه ذات يوم فأسر إلي حديثا لا أحدث به أحدا الناس، وكان أحب ما استتر به رسول الله ﷺ لحاجته هدفا، أو حائش نخل، قال: فدخل حائطا لرجل الأنصار فإذا جمل، فلما رأى النبي ﷺ لحن وذرفت عيناه، فأتاه النبي ﷺ فمسح ذفراه فسكت، فقال: من رب هذا الجمل؟ لمن هذا الجمل؟ فجاء فتى من الأنصار فقال: لي يا رسول الله. فقال: أفلا تتقي الله في هذه البهيمة التي ملكك الله إياها، فإنه شكا إلي أنك تجيعه وتدئبه.
Abu Dawud (2549), Ahmad (1745), and Hakim (2/99–100) all narrated it through routes going back to Mahdi bin Maymun, who said, Ibn Abu Yaqub told us, from Hasan bin Saad, freedman of Hasan bin Ali, from Abdullah bin Jafar, who said, and then he related it. Its chain of transmission is sahih. Hakim said, "sahih in its chain of transmission." Its core is found in Sahih Muslim (342, 2429) through this same route, but restricted to his statement, "The thing the Messenger of Allah ﷺ most liked to shield himself with for his need was a raised mound or a dense cluster of palm trees."His statement, "tudiubuhu," means it wears him out and tires him. His statement, "al-hadaf" refers to what rises up from the ground. His statement, "al-haish," meaning haish of palm trees, refers to an orchard.