or Muḥammad ibn Ḥarb?’
He replied, ‘Reliable, reliable.’

I add: Baqiyyah was an elderly shaykh from Ḥimṣ who enjoyed joking.

Abū al-Taqī al-Yazanī said, ‘I heard Baqiyyah remark, “How kind I am to Tuesday—no one fasts that day.”’

Ibn ʿAdī related: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq told us; I heard Barakah ibn Muḥammad al-Ḥalabī say:
‘We were with Baqiyyah in an upper room when he heard the people outside chanting, “No, no.”
He put his head out of the window and started shouting with them, “No, no.”
We said, “Abū Yuḥmid, glory be to Allah! You are an imam whom people follow.”
He answered, “Be quiet; this is the sunna of our town.”’
Barakah is weak.

Abū ʿAlī al-Naysābūrī the ḥāfiẓ said: ‘Muḥammad ibn Khālid al-Bardāʿī informed us in Mecca; ʿAṭiyyah ibn Baqiyyah narrated to us; he said:
“My father said: I entered upon Hārūn al-Rashīd, and he said to me, ‘O Baqiyyah, I love you.’
I replied, ‘And do you love the people of my city as well, O Commander of the Faithful?’
He said, ‘They are a bad regiment; they have committed such-and-such acts of treachery.’
Then he said, ‘Narrate something to me.’
So I said, ‘Muḥammad ibn Ziyād narrated to us from Abū Umāmah that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “I am the forerunner of the Arabs…,” and he mentioned the rest of the ḥadith.’
He said, ‘Tell me more.’
So I said, ‘Muḥammad ibn Ziyād narrated to me from Abū Umāmah that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “My Lord has promised me that He will admit into Paradise seventy thousand of my community; with every thousand, seventy thousand more, and three handfuls from the handfuls of my Lord.” (1)’
He was overjoyed at this and said, ‘Boy, the inkwell!’
The one in charge of his affairs was al-Faḍl