"Mohammed does not want me for his wife," she said quickly.
Zeid sighed. "Could you be happy were you his wife?" he asked.
The beauty's ambitious spirit rose, but she only said: "Were I made his wife, it would be the will of Allah."
Zeid pushed her gently from him, and went out. "Mohammed," he said, seating himself at the prophet's feet, "you care for Zeinab. I come to offer her to you. Obtain for your poor Zeid a writ of divorce."
The prophet's face showed his satisfaction. "I could never accept such a sacrifice," he said, hesitatingly.
"My life, my all, even to my beloved wife, belongs to my master," returned Zeid. "His pleasure stands to me before aught else."
"So be it, then, most faithful," said the prophet. "O Zeid, my more than son, a glorious reward is withheld for you."
Then, as ever, a revelation of the Koran came seasonably ere another day, to remove every impediment to the union of Mohammed and Zeinab.
"But when Zeid had determined the matter concerning her, and had resolved to divorce her, we joined her in marriage unto thee, lest a crime should be charged on the true believers in marrying the wives of their adopted sons: and the command of God is to be performed. No crime is to be charged on the prophet as to what God hath allowed him."
There were those in Medina who resented Mohammed's selfishness in thus appropriating Zeinab to himself, and there were those who questioned the honor of such a proceeding; but this questioning went on mostly among the few Bedouin adherents who had flocked into the town in his service, for the most sacred oath of the highest class of Bedouins has long been, "By the honor of my women!"