The Messenger of Allah ﷺ was occupied and unable to come out for it (meaning the night prayer), so he delayed it until we had fallen asleep in the mosque, then woke up, then slept again, then woke up once more. Then the Prophet ﷺ came out to us and said, "No one on earth is waiting for this prayer except you."In another narration, Ibn Umar said, "One night we stayed waiting for the Messenger of Allah ﷺ to lead us in the late night prayer. He came out to us when a third of the night had passed, or after that. We did not know whether something at home had occupied him or something else."When he came out, he said, "You are waiting for a prayer that no community of any other religion is waiting for. Were it not that it would be a hardship on my Ummah, I would have prayed it with them at this hour."Then he ordered the muadhin to call the iqamah, and he led the prayer.
أن رسول الله ﷺ شغل عنها (أي عن العشاء) فأخرها حتى رقدنا في المسجد، ثم استيقظنا، ثم رقدنا، ثم استيقظنا، ثم خرج علينا النبي ﷺ ثم قال: ليس أحد من أهل الأرض ينتظر الصلاة غيركم وفي رواية قال ابن عمر: مكثنا ذات ليلة ننتظر رسول الله ﷺ الصلاة العشاء الآخرة، فخرج إلينا حين ذهب ثلث الليل أو بعده، فلا ندري أشيء شغله في أهله أو غير ذلك، فقال حين خرج: إنكم لتنتظرون صلاة ما ينتظرها أهل دين غيركم، ولولا أن يثقل على أمتي لصليت بهم هذه الساعة ثم أمر المؤذن فأقام الصلاة وصلى.
Bukhari narrated it in the Book of Prayer Times (570), and Muslim in the Book of Mosques (639), both from Abdul-Razzaq, who said, Ibn Jurayj informed me, who said, Nafi informed me, who said, Abdullah bin Umar narrated to us, and he related the hadith. It is also in Musannaf (2115). The second narration was reported by Muslim through another route, from Hakam, from Nafi, from Ibn Umar, and he related the hadith. This hadith has already been mentioned in the Book of Wudu, in the chapter stating that sleep is not itself a cause requiring wudu, but rather grounds for suspecting one.