Some men came to Sahl bin Saad al-Saidi after disputing about the wood from which the pulpit was made, and they asked him about it.He said, "By Allah, I know exactly what it is made of. I saw it on the first day it was placed, and the first day the Messenger of Allah ﷺ sat upon it. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ sent word to so-and-so," a woman whom Sahl named, "saying, 'Tell your carpenter slave to make me some pieces of wood that I can sit upon when I address the people.' So she instructed him, and he made it from the tamarisk of the forest. Then he brought it to her, and she sent it to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, who ordered it to be placed here. Then I saw the Messenger of Allah ﷺ pray upon it. He said the takbir while standing on it, then he bowed while on it, then he stepped down backwards and prostrated at the base of the pulpit, then he returned. When he finished, he turned to the people and said, 'People, I have only done this so that you may follow me and learn my prayer.'"
أن رجالا أتوا سهل بن سعد الساعدي وقد امتروا في المنبر مم عوده؟ فسألوه عن ذلك فقال: والله إني لأعرف مما هو، ولقد رأيته أول يوم وضع، وأول يوم جلس عليه رسول الله ﷺ، أرسل رسول الله ﷺ إلى فلانة- امرأة قد سماها سهل- مري غلامك النجار أن يعمل لي أعوادا أجلس عليهن إذا كلمت الناس، فأمرته فعملها من طرفاء الغابة، ثم جاء بها فأرسلت إلى رسول الله ﷺ، فأمر بها فوضعت هاهنا، ثم رأيت رسول الله ﷺ صلى عليها، وكبر وهو عليها، ثم ركع وهو عليها، ثم نزل القهقرى فسجد في أصل المنبر ثم عاد فلما فرغ أقبل على الناس فقال: أيها الناس إنما صنعت هذا لتأتموا، ولتعلموا صلاتي.
Bukhari narrated it in the Book of Friday Prayer (917), and Muslim in the Book of Mosques (544), both of them from Qutayba bin Saeed, who said, "Yaqub bin Abdul-Rahman bin Muhammad bin Abdullah bin Abdul-Qari, Qurashi, Iskandarani, narrated to us, saying, 'Abu Hazim bin Dinar narrated to us,'" and he mentioned something similar, the wording here being Bukhari's.In another narration it reads, "So he made these three steps."As for his saying, "they disputed" (imtaraw), it comes from al-muraah, meaning disputation. This is supported by what appears in Muslim's narration, "that you dispute" (an tumaru), meaning "you argue."As for his saying, "the tamarisk of the Ghabah," the tarfa is a type of tree of which there are four kinds, including the athl, the singular form being tarfaah. The Ghabah is a thicket dense with trees, located in the direction of Sham from Madinah.This hadith shows that it is permissible for the imam to stand on an elevated spot if his purpose is to teach the people, but otherwise this is disliked.