—when Abū Bakr al-Khaṭīb passed away, he saw him in a dream and asked, “How are you?” He replied, “I am in repose, fragrant ease, and a Garden of bliss.” (1)

Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn Jadda said: “After al-Khaṭīb’s death I dreamt that a man was standing beside me. I wanted to ask him about Abū Bakr al-Khaṭīb, but he spoke first, saying, ‘He has been lodged in the very heart of Paradise, the place where the righteous recognize one another.’ This was reported by al-Bardānī in his Book of Dreams. (2)

Ghīth al-Armanāzī relates that Makkī al-Rumaylī said: “I was asleep in Baghdad in Rabīʿ al-Awwal 463 AH when I saw as though we had gathered in Abū Bakr al-Khaṭīb’s house for the customary reading of The History. Al-Khaṭīb was seated, Shaykh Abū al-Fath Naṣr ibn Ibrāhīm al-Maqdisī at his right, and on Naṣr’s right a man I did not recognize. I asked about him and was told, ‘This is the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—who has come to listen to The History.’ I said to myself, ‘What an exalted rank for Abū Bakr, that the Messenger of Allah attends his session! This is a rebuttal of those who fault The History and claim that it deals harshly with certain people.’ (3)

Abū al-Ḥasan Muḥammad ibn Marzūq al-Zaʿfarānī said: The righteous jurist Ḥasan ibn Aḥmad al-Baṣrī narrated to me: “I saw al-Khaṭīb in a dream wearing elegant white garments and a white turban, cheerful and smiling. I am not sure whether I asked him, ‘What has Allah done with you?’ or whether he began the conversation. He said, ‘Allah has forgiven me—or shown me mercy—and everyone who comes to Him’—and it occurred to me that he meant through tawḥīd (pure monotheism)—‘He shows him mercy or forgives him. So rejoice!’ That vision occurred only a few days after his death.”