The ox and dove false-miracle legends of Muhammad originated among Syrian Christian Arabs.

Evidence

The account called the libellus in partibus transmarinis de Machometi fallaciis by Vincent de Beauvais is connected with the account that begins Bonifacii papae temporibus; there is no reason not to think that this statement, which relates the false miracles of the ox with the Qur’an in its horns, and the dove that whispers, as messenger from God, in Muhammad’s ear, originates as Vincent says in Syria, among Christian Arabs. The present writer has heard equally strange stories on the same subject from the same source. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 94

Categorization

• CANDY: The dove-whispering-in-the-ear and Qur’an-in-the-ox’s-horns legends of Muhammad are a fun, self-contained medieval gossip tidbit.