Abu Usamah said, “I once went with Ibn ʿUyaynah to visit him, and he remarked, ‘You have already come to me once; do not come again.’

It was also said that whenever he concluded the obligatory prayer he would hurry straight home.

A man asked him, ‘Give me some advice.’

He answered, ‘Fear Allah, honor your parents—woe to you! Fast from this world and let death be your breaking of the fast; keep away from people without abandoning their congregational prayer (1).’

From him we also have: ‘Certainty suffices as renunciation, knowledge suffices as worship, and worship suffices as an occupation.’

Abu Nuʿaym related, ‘I saw Dawud al-Taʾi. He was among the most eloquent of people and the most learned of them in Arabic, and he wore a long black cap.’

Hafs al-Juʿfi said, ‘Dawud al-Taʾi inherited four hundred dirhams from his mother and lived on them for thirty years. When they were gone, he began dismantling the roofs of his small hut and selling the wood (2).’

ʿAṭāʾ ibn Muslim said, ‘Dawud lived for twenty years on three hundred dirhams.’

Ishaq al-Sululi reported that Umm Saʿid told him, ‘A low wall stood between us and Dawud al-Taʾi. For most of the night I would hear his gentle weeping, never ceasing. Sometimes, in the pre-dawn hours, he would chant the Quran, and I felt that every delight had been gathered in that chanting. He never lit a lamp for himself (3).’

Abu Dawud al-Hafari said that Dawud al-Taʾi once told him, ‘You used to visit us in former days; now I do not wish you to come to me.’