Sālim ibn Abī Ḥafṣah said: When Saʿīd ibn Jubayr was brought before al-Ḥajjāj, he declared, “I am Saʿīd ibn Jubayr.” Al-Ḥajjāj replied, “No, you are Shaqī ibn Kusayr; I shall certainly put you to death.” Saʿīd answered, “Then I am exactly what my mother named me.” He then requested, “Permit me to pray two rakʿahs.” Al-Ḥajjāj ordered, “Turn him toward the qiblah of the Christians.” Saʿīd recited, “Wherever you turn, there is the face of Allah” (Qurʾān 2:115). He added, “I seek refuge from you with the same words Mary used.” Al-Ḥajjāj asked, “And what were those words?” He replied, “She said, ‘Indeed I seek refuge in the Most Merciful from you, if you are God-fearing’” (Qurʾān 19:18).

This report was transmitted by Ibn ʿUyaynah from Sālim, and Ibn ʿUyaynah remarked, “After killing Saʿīd, he (al-Ḥajjāj) executed only one other man.” ⦗1⦘

ʿUtbah, al-Ḥajjāj’s freedman, said:
I was present when Saʿīd was brought to al-Ḥajjāj at Wāsiṭ. Al-Ḥajjāj kept repeating, “Was it not I who did such-and-such for you? Was it not I who did such-and-such for you?” and Saʿīd would answer, “Indeed.” Al-Ḥajjāj then asked, “What drove you to rebel against us?” He replied, “A pledge of allegiance that was upon me”—meaning to Ibn al-Ashʿath. Al-Ḥajjāj became enraged, clapped his hands together, and said, “The pledge to the Commander of the Believers came first and is more binding!” He then ordered that Saʿīd be executed, and his head was struck off. ⦗2⦘

It was said: Had Saʿīd ibn Jubayr not confronted him so forthrightly, al-Ḥajjāj would have spared him, just as he pardoned al-Shaʿbī when the latter mollified him with a courteous apology.

Hāmid ibn Yaḥyā al-Balkhī related: Ḥafṣ Abū Muqātil al-Samarqandī narrated to us from ʿAwn ibn Abī Shaddād:
It reached me that when al-Ḥajjāj was told of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, he dispatched a commander named al-Mutalammis ibn Aḥwaṣ with twenty men from Syria to apprehend him. While they were searching, they came upon a monk in his hermitage and asked him about Saʿīd. The monk said, “Describe him to me.” After they had described him, he directed them to his whereabouts. They went on and found him in prostration, pouring out his supplication at the top of his voice. They approached and greeted him with salām,