And I once heard him say, “Do not cast pearls beneath the hooves of swine.”

Through this same chain: Ziyād ibn Ayyūb related to me; Abū Sufyān al-Ḥimyarī narrated to us, from Sufyān ibn Ḥusayn, who said:
“Al-Aʿmash travelled to part of the Sawād. Some people came to him and asked him to relate hadith. His own companions said, ‘Why not narrate to these poor folk?’ He replied, ‘Who hangs pearls on swine?’”

Abū Saʿīd al-Ashajj told us; Ibn Idrīs narrated to us, from Al-Aʿmash, who said:
“I once sat with Iyās ibn Muʿāwiyah in Wāsiṭ. He mentioned a hadith, so I asked, ‘Who transmitted this?’ He answered with an example drawn from a man of the Khārijites. I retorted, ‘You draw that example for me? Do you want me to sweep the road with my cloak so that I pick up every single dung-ball and beetle I come across?’ ”

Ibn Ḥumayd told us; Yaʿqūb al-Qummī narrated to us, from Abū Ribʿī, from Al-Aʿmash, who said: “The ʿAmāliqah were the Ḥarūrīs—the Khārijites—of the Children of Israel.”

Ziyād ibn Ayyūb related to me; Ibn Abī Zāʾidah narrated to us; Al-Aʿmash said:
“Ibrāhīm once came to visit me when I was ill. He used to joke with me and said, ‘As for you, everyone in your household knows that there is no great man between the two villages.’”

Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq told me; Ibn ʿUmayr narrated to us; I heard Abū Khālid al-Aḥmar say—I heard Al-Aʿmash say: “I wrote down one thousand hadiths from Abū Ṣāliḥ.”

Abū Saʿīd related to us; Ibn Idrīs narrated to us; Al-Aʿmash said to me:
“Are you not amazed at ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Abjar? A man once came to him and said, ‘I have never fallen ill, yet I long to experience illness.’
“He answered, ‘Praise Allah for good health.’
“The man insisted, ‘But I want to be ill.’
“So he told him, ‘Then eat plenty of salted fish, drink thick nabīdh, sit in the sun, and ask Allah to make you sick.’
“Al-Aʿmash burst out laughing and remarked, ‘It is as though he had said, “And ask Allah for a cure!” ’ (1)