fast is the fast of David (1), nor did he mention the ḥadīth that forbids fasting the whole year (2).

Abū Wahb al-Marwazī said: I asked Ibn al-Mubārak, “What is kibr (arrogance)?” He replied, “That you disdain people.”

I then asked him about ʿujb (self-conceit). He said, “It is to imagine that you possess something others do not. I know nothing among those who pray that is worse than self-admiration.”

Ḥātim ibn al-Jarrāḥ narrated: I heard ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥasan ibn Shaqīq say: I heard Ibn al-Mubārak when a man asked him about an ulcer that had appeared on his knee seven years earlier. “I have treated it with every kind of remedy,” the man said, “and consulted physicians, but without benefit.”

Ibn al-Mubārak told him, “Go and dig a well in a place whose people are in need of water. I hope a spring will burst forth there and the bleeding will stop.” The man did so, and he was cured.

Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal said: “Ibn al-Mubārak used to relate ḥadīths from his notebook, so he had very few slips, whereas Wakīʿ would narrate from memory and therefore had as many slips as a man’s memory normally allows.”

More than one person reported that Ibn al-Mubārak was asked, “How long will you go on writing knowledge?” He answered, “Perhaps the statement from which I will truly benefit has not yet been written down.”

ʿAmr an-Nāqid said: I heard Ibn ʿUyaynah declare, “No one who has come to us has equalled Ibn al-Mubārak and Yaḥyā ibn Abī Zāʾidah.”