It was narrated by: Imām Aḥmad in his Musnad, through Abū Kāmil;
and also by Abū Qilābah al-Raqāshī, from ʿAbdullāh ibn Rajāʾ—both of them
from Isrāʾīl.
Saʿīd ibn Abī Maryam reported to us: Ibn Lahayʿah narrated to us;
Yazīd ibn Abī Ḥabīb narrated to us; Salm ibn al-Ṣalt al-ʿAbdī narrated to
me, from Abū al-Ṭufayl al-Bakrī, that Salmān al-Khayr told him, saying:
“I was a man from Jayy, the city of Isfahān. I came to a man who was
scrupulous about what he said to people, and I asked him, ‘Which
religion is best?’
He replied, ‘I know of none save a monk in Mosul.’
So I went to him and stayed with him until he said:
Then I approached a Ḥijāzī and said, ‘Will you take me to Madīnah, and I
will be your slave?’
When we arrived, he put me to work in his date-groves, and I would draw
water as a camel draws it, until my back was raw. I found no one who
understood my language until an elderly Persian woman came to draw
water. I spoke to her and asked, ‘Where is the one who has appeared?’
She said, ‘He will pass by you tomorrow morning.’
I gathered some dates, went to him, and placed them before him.
He asked, ‘Is this charity or a gift? (1)’
Abū Ismāʿīl al-Tirmidhī, Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Jamīl, and others said:
ʿAbdullāh ibn Abī Ziyād al-Qaṭwānī (2) informed us; Sayyār ibn Ḥātim
narrated to us; Mūsā ibn Saʿīd al-Rāsibī narrated to us; Abū Muʿādh
narrated to us, from Abū Salamah ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, from Salmān
al-Fārisī, who said:
‘I was born in Rāmahurmuz, and there I was raised, while my father was
from Isfahān.’