He began turning it over and saying to me: 'O Mu'awiya, how would you like me to kill Ali for you with this? How should I strike him? Describe it to me, so that I may then ask Abu Sufyan how he would like me to kill Muhammad for him and how I should strike him.' I stood up and took the sword in my hand, shook it three times, and said to him: 'You do this with the sword, then you bring it down upon the crown of his head (hama) until you sever it from him... and even if it reaches his backside, take him.' While I was saying this to him, Ali bin Abi Talib suddenly entered upon us, bareheaded (hasiran) uncovering his forearms, and in his hand was a sword flaming with the fire of grandeur. He said to me: 'Strike Suraqa with what is in your hand, just as you were describing to him, otherwise I shall strike you with this sword.' So I rushed with the sword toward Suraqa out of fear of Ali and his sword. By Allah, it landed right in the middle of his stature and sped through him until it split him into two halves while he was sitting; he fell to the right and to the left. Then [Ali] signaled to me with his hand, and I fell upon my face with the sword in my hand, struck unconscious (sa'iqan), not knowing if I were dead or alive, until Abu Sufyan shook me and said: 'O Mu'awiya, stand up! Woe to you, why did you kill Suraqa?'

I said to him: 'O my father, leave me be; I did not kill him.' He asked: 'Then who killed him?' I recounted the story to him and informed him of what had transpired, saying: 'Ali killed him.'