Those who washed his body were Ibn Abī Zanbar and Ibn Kinānah, while his son Yaḥyā and his secretary Ḥabīb poured water for them. A number of men then entered the grave to lay him to rest. He had stipulated that he be shrouded in white garments and that the funeral prayer be performed for him in the place set aside for funerals; the aforementioned emir led the prayer.

The narrator said: That emir was deputy for his father Muḥammad over Madinah. He walked ahead of the funeral procession, helped carry the bier himself, and the cost of the shroud came to five gold dinars.

I say: The reports that his death occurred in the year nine—that is, 179 AH—are recurrent and well-established. No weight is therefore given to anyone who erred and placed it in 178 AH, nor to the claim of his secretary Ḥabīb or of Muṭarrif, from whom it is related that they said it was 180 AH.

Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ transmitted that Asad ibn Mūsā said: “I saw Mālik after his death. He was wearing a long cloak and green garments, riding a she-camel that was flying between heaven and earth. I said, ‘O Abū ʿAbd Allāh! Have you not died?’ He replied, ‘Indeed.’ I asked, ‘Then where have you gone?’ He said, ‘I have come before my Lord, who spoke to me directly (1) and said: Ask of Me and I shall grant you; wish of Me and I shall satisfy you. (2)’ ”

Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ went on: Scholars have differed over his age. ʿAbd Allāh ibn Nāfiʿ al-Ṣāʾigh, Ibn Abī Uways, Muḥammad ibn Saʿd and Ḥabīb said he lived eighty-five years. Others said eighty-four; others, eighty-seven. Al-Wāqidī said ninety; al-Firyābī and Abū Muṣʿab said eighty-six; al-Qaʿnabī said eighty-nine; while ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Qāsim said he lived eighty-seven. A solitary report came from Ayyūb ibn Ṣāliḥ, who said: