to his audience in Baghdad the phrase, “A prayer after a prayer is a record inscribed in ʿIlliyyīn.” He, however, corrupted it and read, “Like a fire in the pre-dawn darkness.” The listeners challenged him, and he replied, “Fire in the pre-dawn gloom shines the brighter.”

Al-Ṭarqī added: A friend of mine once asked him, “Have you heard the Jāmiʿ of Abū ʿĪsā?” He answered, “What Jāmiʿ? Who is Abū ʿĪsā?” Yet later I heard him count that very book among the works he claimed to have auditioned.

When he resolved to dictate in the Jāmiʿ of the Qaṣr, I said to him, “Why not seek the help of a ḥāfiẓ?” He replied, “Only someone with scant knowledge would do that; my memory spares me the need.” I was then charged with taking down his dictation, and I saw him omit a transmitter from the chain, add another, or turn one man into two. It was a disgrace. One example was the chain: “al-Ḥasan ibn Sufyān—Yazīd ibn Zurayʿ narrated to us.” The assembly fell silent, looked at me, and murmured, so I said, “Either Muḥammad ibn Minḥāl or Umayya ibn Bisṭām (2) is missing.” He retorted, “Write it exactly as it is in my copy.”

Again he read: “Sahl ibn Baḥr informed us; anā saʾaltuhu (I questioned him),” but misread it as, “anā sāliba (I am Sāl iba).”

He also said: “Saʿīd ibn ʿAmr al-Ashʿathī,” but rendered it, “Saʿīd ibn ʿAmr—and al-Ashʿathī,” treating the wāw of “ʿAmr” as a conjunction. I corrected him, but he refused, so I asked, “Then who is al-Ashʿathī?” He replied, “That is mere meddling on your part.”

Likewise he recited: “Waraqāʾ ibn Qays ibn al-Rabīʿ,” and I said, “It should read ‘on the authority of (ʿan) Qays,’ not ‘ibn Qays.’”

And in the ḥadith of Ḥumayl ibn Baṣrah he read: “I met Abū Hurayrah while he was coming from Mount Ṭūr (3),” and he said: