Musannaf Ibn Abi Shaybah

Hazrat Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) narrates that for Hazrat Sulaiman bin Dawood (peace be upon him), six hundred thousand chairs would be arranged, then the nobles from among the humans would come and sit on the right side, and then the nobles from among the jinn would come and sit on the left side. Then he would call the birds and they would provide shade over them, then he would call the wind and it would lift them up, and he would cover a month's journey in a single morning. One day, while he was traveling in this manner in a field, he needed water. He called the hoopoe, it came and struck its beak into the ground and indicated the place of water. Then the devils came to that place and dug it up just as a goat's skin is removed, and they extracted water from that place. It is said that upon this, Nafi' bin Azraq said, "O one who is narrating, stop for a moment! You say that the hoopoe came and struck its beak into the ground and indicated the place of water—how does it see this, when it cannot even see the net that comes and falls upon its neck?" Hazrat Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) replied, "Woe to you! Destiny comes between the eyes and what they see."