where they would rest their pack animals. He would then teach them those portions of the Quran that enabled them to discharge the obligatory prayers, remaining with them until the approach of the ʿaṣr prayer. After that he would return to his mosque, perform ʿaṣr, sit reviewing the Quran and remembering Allah until the end of the day. Then he would go home, where his evening meal was set before him; he would break his fast with roughly ten arṭāls (1) of food. After that a large jug was brought containing about ten arṭāls of nabidh, from which he drank as much as he pleased while eating, then placed it in front of him. He would rise to perform his nightly devotions, and each time he finished a portion of prayer he would drink from the jug until he had emptied it, after which he would sleep.

This account was narrated by al-Dāraquṭnī, from the judge Ibn Umm Shaybān, from his father, from Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Sufyān ibn Wakīʿ, from his father (2).

Isḥāq ibn Buhlūl said: “Wakīʿ came to us and lodged in the Euphrates Mosque. I heard hadith from him. He asked me for some nabidh, so I brought it and began reading hadith to him while he drank. When what I had brought ran out, he extinguished the lamp.

‘I asked, “What is this?”

‘He replied, “Had you brought us more, we would have given you more.”’

Jaʿfar al-Ṭayālisī said: I heard Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn say: “I heard a man ask Wakīʿ, ‘Abū Sufyān! Last night I drank some nabidh, and in a dream it was as though someone said to me, “You have drunk wine.”’

‘Wakīʿ answered, “That was Satan.”’

Nuʿaym ibn Ḥammād reported: “We once dined—or, he said, lunched—at Wakīʿ’s place, and he asked, ‘What would you like me to bring you: the nabidh of the elders, or the nabidh of the young men?’ I replied…”