—go out to the Bedouins and teach them the fundamentals of the faith. Once a Bedouin came to him after the money in his hand had been exhausted. Al-Zuhrī stretched out toward my turban, removed it, gave it to the man and said, “ʿUqayl, I will give you something better than that.”

Abū Musʿhir narrated to us: Saʿīd ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz said, “We used to visit al-Zuhrī at al-Rāhib—a quarter south of Damascus—and he would set before us any number of different dishes.”

Sulaymān ibn Ḥarb, from Ḥammād ibn Zayd, said: “Al-Zuhrī would narrate hadith and then say, ‘Bring some of your poetry and your stories, for the ear grows jaded and the soul needs a change of flavour.’”

Maʿmar related from al-Zuhrī that he said, “When a gathering goes on too long, Satan gets a portion of it.”

Muḥammad ibn Ishkāb said, “Al-Zuhrī was a soldier.” I add: he held the rank of an amīr.

Ishāq al-Musayyibī the Qurʾān-reciter transmitted from Nāfiʿ ibn Abī Nuʿaym that he presented his recitation of the Qurʾān to al-Zuhrī.

I further remark: Al-Zuhrī was known for his devotion. Maʿn ibn ʿĪsā told me—related by al-Munkadir ibn Muḥammad—“I saw the mark of prostration between al-Zuhrī’s eyes.”

Layth ibn Saʿd said, “Al-Zuhrī had a safflower-dyed pavilion, and he himself wore a safflower-dyed mantle.”

Al-Walīd ibn Muslim reported: al-Qāsim ibn Hizzān—trustworthy—told me he heard al-Zuhrī say, “People are not satisfied with the words of a scholar who does not act, nor with the actions of one who acts without knowledge.”

Abū al-Zinād said: “Al-Zuhrī was constantly denigrating al-Walīd ibn Yazīd in the presence of Hishām, censuring him and recounting serious faults—even mentioning the boys who dyed themselves with henna—and saying to Hishām, ‘Nothing is lawful for you but to depose him.’

“Hishām could not do so on account of the oath that had been sworn to al-Walīd, yet he did not dislike what al-Zuhrī was doing, hoping thereby to turn the people against him. I was once with him at the edge of the pavilion, listening to al-Zuhrī disparage al-Walīd, when the chamberlain came in and said, ‘Al-Walīd is at the door.’

“Hishām replied, ‘Show him in.’ He made room for him on his own couch, and I could read anger and ill-will on al-Walīd’s face. When al-Walīd later assumed the caliphate, he summoned me, Ibn al-Munkadir, Ibn al-Qāsim and Rabīʿah. One night he had me brought to him in private, set supper before me and said, ‘Give us a hadith, Ibn Dhakwān.’”