The Prophet ﷺ sent us out as a force of three hundred riders under the command of Abu Ubayda to lie in wait for a caravan of Quraysh. We were struck by such severe hunger that we ate the leaves of the khabat tree, so the expedition came to be called the Army of the Khabat. Then the sea cast up for us a creature called the anbar, and we ate from it for half a month and oiled ourselves with its fat until our bodies recovered.Abu Ubayda took one of its ribs and set it upright, and a rider passed beneath it.There was a man among us who, when the hunger grew severe, slaughtered three of his camels, then another three, until Abu Ubayda forbade him from doing so.
حدثنا عبد الله بن محمد أخبرنا سفيان عن عمرو قال سمعت
بعثنا النبي ﷺ ثلاث مائة راكب وأميرنا أبو عبيدة نرصد عيرا لقريش فأصابنا جوع شديد حتى أكلنا الخبط فسمي جيش الخبط وألقى البحر حوتا يقال له العنبر فأكلنا نصف شهر وادهنا بودكه حتى صلحت أجسامنا قال فأخذ أبو عبيدة ضلعا من أضلاعه فنصبه فمر الراكب تحته وكان فينا رجل فلما اشتد الجوع نحر ثلاث جزائر ثم ثلاث جزائر ثم نهاه أبو عبيدة