Narrated Ibn 'Abbsa, may Allah be pleased with him, said: "The first lady to use a girdle was the mother of Isma'il (Ismael). She used a girdle so that she might hide her tracks from Sarah. Ibrahim brought her and her son Isma'il, while she used to nurse him at her breast, to a place near the Ka'ba under a tree on the spot of Zam-Zam, at the highest place in the mosque. During those days there was nobody on Makka nor was there any water. So he made them sit over there and placed neat them a leather bag containing some dates, and a small water-skin containing some water, and set out homeward. Isma'il mother followed him saying, "O Ibrahim! Where are you going, leaving us fn this valley where there is no person whose company we may join, nor is there anything (to enjoy)" She repeated that to him many times, but he did not look at her. Then she asked him, "has Allah ordered you to do so?" He said, "Yes." She said, "Then He will not neglect us," and returned while Ibrahim proceeded onward, and on reaching the Thaniya where they could not see him, he faced the Ka'ba, and raising both hands, invoked Allah saying the following supplication: "O our Lord! I have made some of my offspring dwell in a valley with no cultivation, by Your Sacred House (Ka'aba at Makka) in order, O our Lord, that they may perform Iqamat-as-Salat, so fill some hearts among men with love toward them, and (O Allah) provide them with fruits, so that they may give thanks." (V. 14:37) Isma'il's mother went on sucking Isma'il and drinking from the water (she had). When the water in the water-skin had all been used up, she became thirsty and her child also became thirsty. She started looking at him [i.e. Isma'il] tossing in agony; she left him, for she could not endure looking at him, and found that the mountain of As-Safa was the nearest mountain of to her on that land. She stood on it and started looking at the valley keenly so that she see somebody, but she could not see anybody. Then she descended from As-Safa and when she reached the valley, she tucked up her robe and ran in the valley like a person in distress and trouble, till she crossed the valley and reached AI-Marwa mountain where she stood and started looking expecting to see somebody, but could not see anybody. She repeated that (running between As-Safa and Al-Marwa) seven times. Ibn Abbas said: The Prophet, peace be upon him, said, "This is the source of tradition of Sa'y (Sa'y- the walking) of people between them ( i.e. As-Safa and AI-Marwa). When she reached AI-Marwa ( for last time) she heard a voice and she asked herself to be quite and listened attentively. She heard the voice again and said, 'O, (whoever you may be)! You have made me hear your voice; have you gotsomething to help me?' And behold! She saw an angel at the place of Zam-Zam, digging the earth with his heel (or his wing), till water flowed from that place. She started to made something like a basin around it, using her hands in this way and started filling her water-skin with water with her hands, and the water was flowing out after she had scooped some of it." The Prophet, peace be upon him, added, "May Allah bestow mercy on Isma'il's mother! Had she let the Zam- zam (flow without trying to control it) (or had she not scooped from that water) (to fill her water water-skin), Zam-zam would have been a stream flowing on the surface of the earth " The Prophet, peace be upon him, further added, "Then she drank (water) and suckled her child. The angel said to her, 'Don't be afraid of being neglected, for this is the House of Allah which will be built by this boy and his father, and Allah never neglects His people/' The House (i.e. Ka'bah) at that time was on a high place resembling a hillock, and when torrents came, they flowed to its right and left ...." (Bukhari, Summarized Sahih Al-Bukhari. Arabic-English. Hadith No. 1415)