Abu Maʿshar al-Sindi said: Ibn al-Munkadir once sent Safwān ibn Sulaym forty dinars, then turned to his sons and said, “My children, what do you think of the man who has freed Safwān ibn Sulaym to give himself wholly to the worship of his Lord?”

Abu Muʿāwiyah, reporting from ʿUthmān ibn Wāqid, said: It was asked of Ibn al-Munkadir, “Which thing of this world is dearest to you?” He replied, “Extending generosity to one’s brothers.”

Abu Maʿshar also said: He was a noble man; he would feed people, and the Qurʾān-reciters used to gather in his house.

Jaʿfar ibn Sulaymān related, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn al-Munkadir, that he would place his cheek upon the ground and then say to his mother, “Rise and put your foot on my cheek.”

I read before Isḥāq al-Asadī—Yūsuf the ḥāfiẓ informed you; Abū al-Makārim al-Taymī narrated to us; Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥaddād narrated to us; Abū Nuʿaym the ḥāfiẓ narrated to us; al-Ḥasan ibn Muḥammad ibn Kaysān told us; Ismāʿīl the judge told us; Naṣr ibn ʿAlī told us; al-Aṣmaʿī told us; Abū Mawdūd told us—on the authority of Muḥammad ibn al-Munkadir, who said:

“I came to the mosque and found an elderly man beside the pulpit supplicating for rain. Rain fell, and it fell with a roar, so he said, ‘My Lord, this is not what I meant.’ I followed him until he entered the house of the family of Ḥarām—or the house of the family of ʿUthmān. I offered him something, but he refused. I then asked, ‘Will you perform the pilgrimage with me?’ He answered, ‘That is something in which you will have a reward, and I would hate to deprive you of it; but as for taking anything for myself, no.’”

Through another chain reaching Abū Nuʿaym—Abū Muḥammad ibn Ḥayyān related to us; Abū al-ʿAbbās al-Harawī related to us; Yūnus ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us; Ibn Wahb related to us; Ibn Zayd related to us—who said: Ibn al-Munkadir declared:

“One night I was facing this pulpit in the depth of the night, calling upon Allah, when I noticed a man by one of the pillars with his head covered. I heard him say, ‘O Lord, the drought has grown severe upon Your servants, and I adjure You, O Lord, to give them rain.’ Scarcely an hour had passed before a cloud approached, and Allah let it pour down. It weighed upon me that someone of such virtue could live in Medina without my knowing him, so I said, ‘This man is in Medina and I do not know him!’

“When the imam concluded the prayer, the man drew his cloak over his head and left. I followed him; he did not pause for the sermon but went straight to the house of Anas, entered a room, opened the door, and went in. I returned, and when I had finished my voluntary devotions (tasbīḥ)…"