and Sulayman al-Aʿmash, together with a number of others.

Those who narrated from him include Ibn ʿUlayyah, Zafir ibn Sulayman, Musʿab ibn al-Miqdam, Ishaq ibn Mansur al-Sululi, Abu Nuʿaym, and others.

He was among the foremost imams of jurisprudence and scholarly opinion. After perfecting his learning under Abu Hanifah, he turned to his own spiritual concerns, embraced silence, preferred obscurity, and fled with his religion.

A man once asked him about a hadith, and he replied, “Let me hasten to prepare for the departure of my soul.”

Sufyan al-Thawri held him in great esteem and used to say, “Dawud has clearly perceived his affair.” Ibn al-Mubarak remarked, “Is the matter anything other than what Dawud is upon?”

It is said that he drowned his books.

Zaydah asked him for the explanation of a Qurʾanic verse, but he answered, “O so-and-so, the answer has been cut off.”

Ibn ʿUyaynah said, “Dawud was one who had acquired knowledge and deep understanding (1); he was incisive in speech and once cut a man down, whereupon Abu Hanifah said, ‘Abu Sulayman, your tongue and your hand have grown long.’”

After that, he kept away for a whole year, neither asking questions nor replying to anyone (2).

I say: he hardened (3) and disciplined his own soul until it became strong enough to endure solitude.