Abū al-Qāsim Ibn ʿAsākir said, “I heard Abū al-Faḍl Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAṭṭāf relate that one of the dignitaries’ sons in Baghdad developed an extra finger, which caused him severe pain. Ibn al-Khaḍibah visited the boy, stroked the finger and said, ‘Its matter is simple.’ That night the lad went to sleep, and when he awoke he found that the finger had fallen off—just as he (Ibn al-Khaḍibah) had said.”

Ibn ʿAsākir added, “Ibn al-Khaḍibah heard hadith in Jerusalem from ʿAbd al-Raḥīm al-Bukhārī and Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī al-Dīnawarī. He copied a vast number of manuscripts, served as the mufti of Baghdad in his day, and was a righteous and humble man.”

Ibn al-Khaḍibah died on Tuesday, the second of Rabīʿ al-Awwal, 489 AH; his funeral was thronged with mourners, and several complete recitations of the Qur’an were performed at his grave.

Al-Qāsim ibn Muḥammad al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us; Aḥmad ibn Ibrāhīm the Qur’an-reciter informed us; ʿAbd al-Laṭīf al-Ṭabarī informed us; Muḥammad ibn al-Baṭṭī informed us; Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Bāqī informed us; Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī ibn Thābit informed us; Ibn Abī al-Fawāris narrated to us; al-Ḥusayn ibn Aḥmad al-Harawī al-Ṣaffār narrated to us:

“I was in the presence of al-Shiblī when one of the Sufis asked him, ‘A man hears words he does not understand, yet he is overcome with ecstasy—what do you say about that?’ Al-Shiblī thereupon recited:

A mourning turtledove at mid-morning (1)
full of sorrow, trilling upon a branch.
My weeping may, at times, keep her awake,
and her weeping may, at times, keep me awake.
I complain, yet she cannot understand me,
and she complains, yet I cannot understand her;
still, through passion I recognize her,
and she, through passion, recognizes me. (2)