Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes, St. Savior in Chora, Istanbul

One of the miracles attributed to Jesus is the feeding of the multitude with a mere five loaves of bread and two fishes (probably not large as the one that swallowed Jonah). The Gospel of Mark (6:30-44). In this story about five thousand were fed with a dozen baskets leftover. Who could top that among the prophets? Well, it turns out that a similar legend is recorded for the Prophet Muhammad. But instead of bread and fish the main dishes were tharid (a bread and meat dish), and dates. The famous early linguist Qutrub (died 206/821) is attributed with the following poem:

And there was a dish of tharid, food for one person:
with it he sated the crowd, while the crowd was witnessing it.
Three hundred were fed from it and had enough,
whereas it had not been enough for one ascetic (…)
Twenty-one dates were in a bag, as is related
in reports transmitted by a chain of authorities:
Three thousand people had their fill from them,
and what they left over still filled the bag.

Translated by Geert Jan van Gelder in his God’s Banquet: Food in Classical Arabic Literature (New York: Columbia University Press, 2000), p. 24.