Then he said, “I have tested this man from Isfahan, learned his outward face and his inner self, and found him as solid as bedrock. I therefore entrusted the affair to him and dispatched him to Khurasan; what followed is known.”

Caliph al-Maʾmun remarked, “The greatest kings of the earth are three—those who shifted the course of dynasties: Alexander, Ardashir, and Abu Muslim.”

Abu al-Qasim Ibn ʿAsakir relates: Abu al-Hasan Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn al-Qawwas recorded in his History: “Abu Muslim and Hafs ibn Salamah al-Khallal came to Imam Ibrahim ibn Muhammad. He ordered the two of them to set out for Khurasan, while Ibrahim was then at al-Humayma ⦗1⦘ in the district of al-Balqa. Abu Muslim heard hadith from ʿIkrima.”

Thus reported the ḥadith master Abu al-Qasim, but this is a mistake; he never met him.

He also said: “He (Abu Muslim) heard from Thabit al-Bunani, Abu al-Zubayr al-Makki, Muhammad ibn ʿAli the Imam, and his son, from Ismaʿil al-Suddi, and from ʿAbd al-Rahman ibn Harmala.

“Those who narrated from him include: Ibrahim ibn Maymun al-Saʿigh, Ibn Shubrumah the jurist, ʿAbd Allah ibn Munib, ʿAbd Allah ibn al-Mubarak, and others.”

I say: Ibn al-Mubarak did not live to transmit from him; he only saw him.

Abu Ahmad ʿAli ibn Muhammad ibn Habib al-Marwazi said: “Abu Yusuf Muhammad ibn ʿAbdak narrated to us, Musʿab ibn Bishr narrated to us, saying: I heard my father say:

“A man stood up before Abu Muslim while he was delivering the sermon and asked, ‘What is this black you are wearing?’ He replied, ‘Abu al-Zubayr narrated to me, from Jabir ibn ʿAbd Allah, that the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—entered Mecca on the Day of Conquest wearing a black turban, and this…’”