I add: Those who transmitted from him include al-Silafī, Yaḥyā al-Thaqafī, Dāwūd ibn Niẓām al-Mulk, and others.

Al-Silafī said, “He was called Daʿlaj. He did possess learning, and we heard many narrations read by him, yet others are more trustworthy than he.”

Maʿmar ibn al-Fākher stated, “I once saw Ibrāhīm al-Baʾār standing in the marketplace. He was relating strange ḥadiths with sound chains, and I scrutinised him so closely that I suspected Satan had taken on his form.”

Ibn Ṭāhir said, “I mentioned to al-Ābārī some Meccan and Egyptian shaykhs; a few days later I heard that he had begun to report ḥadith from them. The matter reached Shaykh al-Islām al-Anṣārī (1), who asked him in my presence whether he had actually met those men. He replied, ‘I heard along with this.’ I said, ‘I have never seen you anywhere but here.’

“The shaykh then asked him, ‘Have you performed the pilgrimage?’
‘Yes,’ he answered.
‘What are the distinguishing features of ʿArafāt?’
‘We entered it at night.’
‘That is possible. And what marks out Minā?’
‘We were there at night as well.’

“The shaykh retorted, ‘Three days and three nights and dawn never broke for you?! May Allah not bless you.’ He then ordered that the man be expelled from the city, declaring, ‘This is a deceiver.’

“In the end his affair was exposed until he became a by-word for mendacity. (2)”