Abū al-Mughīra related, “We would look for a sandal big enough for him, but could not find one until he had worn it in himself, so large were his feet.”

I say: He was nicknamed al-Sajjād (“the one who is constantly in prostration”) because of the sheer quantity of his prayers.

It is also said that when he once entered upon ʿAbd al-Malik, the caliph seated him beside himself on the throne.

Al-Mubarrad reports that al-Walīd beat him twice, one of those times because he married Lubābah bint ʿAbd Allah ibn Jaʿfar. She had previously been the wife of ʿAbd al-Malik, who once bit into an apple and handed it to her; his breath, however, was foul, so she pared off the bitten part with a knife, saying, “I am removing what is offensive.” ʿAbd al-Malik then divorced her, and ʿAli married her.

He was once seen after a flogging, mounted backwards on a camel while a crier announced, “This is ʿAli the liar!” They had been told that he claimed, “This authority will pass to my descendants, and I swear it will remain with them until even their small-eyed, broad-faced slave-boys come to rule.”

It is also said that he entered upon Hishām, who honoured him and gave him thirty thousand silver coins, then remarked, “The old man has lost his mind and is speaking nonsense; he says this authority will pass to his children.” ʿAli overheard and replied, “By Allah, that will surely happen, and these two will rule.” With him at the time were his grandsons al-Saffāḥ and al-Manṣūr.

I say: Hishām had lodged him and his children at al-Humayma (1), a village in the Balqāʾ region.

He died in 118 AH, at the age of seventy-eight.

He is the ancestor of the caliphs. Besides the sons already mentioned, his children included Muḥammad al-Imām, Ṣāliḥ, Aḥmad, Bashīr, Mubashshir, Ismāʿīl, ʿAbd Allah, ʿUbayd Allah, ʿAbd al-Malik, ʿUthmān, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, Yaḥyā, Isḥāq, Yaʿqūb, ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, al-Aḥnaf, and several daughters.