Jarīr ibn Ḥāzim said: Awfā ibn Dilham related to me:
“I saw that very basket with his wife; inside it was a written copy of the Qur’an, and afterwards it was nowhere to be found. (1)
A similar report was transmitted by ʿAwf, from Abū al-Salīl, from Ṣilah. (2)
This, then, is an established karāmah—a genuine divine favor.

Ibn al-Mubārak narrated: Muslim ibn Saʿīd told us; Ḥammād ibn Jaʿfar ibn Zayd informed us that his father told him:
‘We marched on campaign to Kabul, with Ṣilah among the troops. When the army halted I said to myself, “I shall watch what he does.”
He prayed and then lay down. When he sensed that the people were distracted, he sprang up and slipped into a thicket; I followed. He performed ablution and began to pray, and a lion approached until it stood beside him. I climbed a tree—did he even glance at it before he went into prostration?
I thought, “Now the beast will tear him apart; nothing can save him.” He then sat up, gave the salām, and said, “O beast, seek your provision elsewhere.” The lion turned away, roaring with a sound that—so it seemed to me—could have split the mountain.
When dawn was near he sat and praised Allah with praises the like of which I had never heard, and then he supplicated: “O Allah, I ask You to shield me from the Fire—how could someone like me dare to ask You for Paradise? (3)”

Ibn al-Mubārak also reported, through al-Sarī ibn Yaḥyā, who related to us from al-ʿAlāʾ ibn Hilāl:
A man once said to Ṣilah, “Abū Ṣaḥbāʾ, I saw in a dream that I was granted one martyrdom, whereas you were granted two.”
He replied, “That means you will be martyred, and so will I and my son.”

Later, during the expedition of Yazīd ibn Ziyād, the Turks confronted them at Sijistān and the army broke and fled.
Ṣilah said, “My son, go back to your mother.”
The boy answered, “Father, you want the reward for yourself and command me to retreat!”
He said, “Then advance.”
So the youth advanced and fought until—