وَإِذْ صَرَفْنَا إِلَيْكَ نَفَرًا مِّنَ الْجِنِّ يَسْتَمِعُونَ الْقُرْآنَ فَلَمَّا حَضَرُوهُ قَالُوا أَنصِتُوا ۖ فَلَمَّا قُضِيَ وَلَّوْا إِلَىٰ قَوْمِهِم مُّنذِرِينَ (29)
(46:29) And call to mind when We sent to you a party of the jinn that they may listen to the Qur'an. *33 When they reached the place (where you were reciting the Qur'an), they said to one another: 'Be silent (and listen).' And when the recitation ended, they went back to their people as warners.
*33) The traditions that have been related from Hadrat `Abdullah bin Mas'ud, Hadrat Zubair, Hadrat 'Abdullah bin 'Abbas, Hasan Basri, Said bin Jubair, Zarr bin Hubaish, Mujahid, 'ikrimah and others in connection with the commentary of this verse concur that this incident of the first visit of the jinns, which has been mentioned in this verse, had occurred in the valley of Nakhlah. And according to Ibn Ishaq, Abu Nu`aim Isfahaini and Waqidi, this incident occurred during the Holy Prophet's return journey from Ta'if to Makkah. On the way, when he halted at Nakhlah, and was reciting the Qur'an in the 'Isha' or the Fajr or the Tahajjud Prayer, a group of the jinns happened to pass by and stopped to listen to him. In this connection, all the traditions agree that on this occasion the jinns did not appear before the Holy Prophet, nor did he feel their presence, but AIIah informed him afterwards by revelation that they had come and listened to the Qur'anic recitation.
The place where this incident took place was either Az-Zaimah or AsSayl-ul-Kabir, for both these places are situated in the valley of Nakhlah and at both water is available and are green; if the travellers from Ta'if have to halt in this valley, they can halt at either of the places. Please see the map for the location of these places.