Marriage to the Prophet did not change her playful ways. Her young friends came regularly
to visit her in her own apartment.
"I would be playing with my dolls," she said, "with the girls who were my
friends, and the Prophet would come in and they would slip out of the house and he would
go out after them and bring them back, for he was pleased for my sake to have them
there."
Sometimes he would say "Stay where you are" before they had time to leave, and
would also join in their games. A'ishah said:
"One day, the Prophet came in when I was playing with the dolls and he said:
'O A'ishah, whatever game is this?'
'It is Solomon's horses,' I said and he laughed."
Sometimes as he came in he would screen himself with his cloak so as not to disturb
A'ishah and her friends.
A'ishah's early life in Madinah also had its more serious and anxious times. Once her
father and two companions who were staying with him fell ill with a dangerous fever which
was common in Madinah at certain seasons. One morning A'ishah went to visit him and was
dismayed to find the three men lying completely weak and exhausted. She asked her father
how he was and he answered her in verse but she did not understand what he was saying. The
two others also answered her with lines of poetry which seemed to her to be nothing but
unintelligible babbling. She was deeply troubled and went home to the Prophet saying:
"They are raving, out of their minds, through the heat of the fever."
The Prophet asked what they had said and was somewhat reassured when she repeated almost
word for word the lines they had uttered and which made sense although she did not fully
understand them then. This was a demonstration of the great retentive power of her memory
which as the years went by were to preserve so many of the priceless sayings of the
Prophet.