In the year of delegations Musaylimah, Maslamah ibn Habib of the Banu Hanifa, an old man who had studied Christianity in Jerusalem and held the respect of all al-Yamama, came to Madinah carried into the mosque under fine cloth like a king, and offered to follow the Prophet ﷺ if he were made his successor and given a share in prophethood. The Prophet ﷺ, holding a palm branch, told him he would not give him so much as that stick, that Allah would deal with him, and that he was certain Musaylimah was what he had been shown: two gold bracelets on his arms in a dream, which he blew on and which flew away, two liars who would come after him, al-Aswad al-Ansi and Musaylimah of al-Yamama. Home again, Musaylimah wrote as one messenger of Allah to another that the matter was divided between them, half to the Quraysh and half to him, and the Prophet ﷺ told his two envoys that but for the custom that envoys are not harmed he would have had them killed. Musaylimah recited a quran of his own, of frogs and elephants; a passing Arab told him to his face that they both knew he was a liar.
When the Prophet ﷺ died the Banu Hanifa, the largest of the tribes that apostatised and the worst of them, rose behind Musaylimah, and in 12 AH Abu Bakr sent Khalid ibn al-Walid against them. The battle at Yamama was the bloodiest of the Ridda wars. Among the Muslims who marched was Wahshi, who had heard of the false prophet and asked Allah to let him take Musaylimah's life in exchange for what he had done to Hamzah at Uhud; he carried the same javelin, threw it as he had thrown it that day, and an Ansari's sword struck from the other side in the same moment, so that he never knew which of them had killed Musaylimah. Among the dead were Abu Hudhayfah ibn Utbah, who had said after Badr that he would not feel safe from one sentence he had spoken there until Allah accepted him as a martyr, and Ukasha ibn Mihsan, who fell still carrying the sword that had been a stick of wood in his hand at Badr.