He is known from a chance mention in a Chinese biography of Mohammed, the T'ien-fang Chih-sheng shih-lu, written between 1721 and 1724 by Liu Chih. This work uses older materials that have been traced to a biography of the Prophet written by Sa'id al-Din Mohammed bin Mas'ud bin Mohammad al-Kazarumi, who died in 1357. According to this Chinese biography, the najashi of Ethiopia was said to have sent an ambassador with gifts to Mohammed's family upon sighting a star that announced his birth.