From ‘Aishah (may Allah be pleased with her), who said: The beginnings of the revelations to come to the Messenger of Allah (SAW) were genuine visions in his sleep … And He used to go to Hiraa and spend time there in worship, engaged in devotion at night many times. He would bring along provisions for this, then return to Khadijah, and she would supply him with provisions again, until finally the truth came to him while He was in the cave of Hiraa. The angel came to him there and said: “Read!” [or “Recite!”] The Prophet (SAW) recounted: And I said “I can’t read!” [or “What am I to recite?”]. Then he grabbed me and overwhelmed me until he brought me to exhaustion, then he let me go. And he said: “Read!”, and I said: “I can’t read!” So he grabbed me and overwhelmed me a second time until he brought me to exhaustion, then he let me go. And he said: “Read!”, and I said: “I can’t read!” So he overwhelmed me a third time until he brought me to exhaustion, then he let me go. Then he said: Read “In the name of your Lord who has created” until “what he has not known” [Surah Al-‘alaq 1-5]. And he returned with this, his neck fibers convulsing until he came into where Khadija was. And he said: Swaddle me you guys! Swaddle me! So they swaddled him until the panic left him. And he said: Oh Khadija! What is with me? … Then Waraqa soon passed away, and the revelations ceased for a while, to the point that the Prophet became saddened (SAW) – as far as we are aware – so saddened as to set out in sadness several times to fall from the high points of mountaintops. But every time he got close to the top of a mountain to throw himself from it, Jibril appeared to him and said: Oh Muhammad! Indeed you are truly the Messenger of Allah. And his anxiety would calm down and his soul would be still, and he would return home. But whenever the coming of the revelations was prolonged, he would set out as before, and whenever he got close to the top of a mountain, Jibril would appear to him and say to him the same as before.