When envoys of the Quraysh came to Abyssinia to demand the return of the Muslim emigrants, the Najashi, the king of Abyssinia, listened to Ja'far explain what Muslims believe about Jesus. The Najashi then picked up a small twig and said that Ja'far's words did not go beyond what Jesus himself had said "by this much of a branch." After this, rumors spread that the king had left his people's religion and become a heretic. Some of his own people spoke against him in private, and the unrest grew until a coup seemed possible.
The Najashi's supporters told him what was happening. Before facing the plotters, he secretly sent word to the Muslims that his life might be in danger. He told them he had prepared a ship and a captain so they could escape if he was overthrown.
He then wrote a statement of his true belief on a piece of parchment: "I bear witness that there is only one God, and that Jesus is the prophet, slave, and Word of God." He hid the parchment inside his robe and called the plotters to his private chambers. He asked them whether he had not been a good, just king who had improved their lives, and they agreed that he had. When he asked what their complaint was, they said he had abandoned their religion. He asked what they believed, and they said that Jesus was the son of God.
The Najashi swore by God and, pointing to his chest where the parchment lay, said that this was exactly what he believed. The plotters understood him to mean their own creed, while he meant the words on the parchment. This kind of statement is called a tawriya: words that the listener takes one way while the speaker truthfully means another. It satisfied the plotters and ended the threat, so the escape ship was never needed.