Abū Ḥudhāfah al-Sahmī said, “Al-Wāqidī owned six hundred qimaṭrs (1) of books.”

Ibrāhīm al-Ḥarbī related, “I heard al-Musayyabī say:

‘One day we found al-Wāqidī sitting against a pillar in the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina, teaching. We asked, “What are you teaching?” He answered, “My section on the military expeditions (maghāzī).”

‘On another occasion we said to him, “When you gather the authorities you say, ‘So-and-so and so-and-so narrated to us,’ yet you supply only one wording. Would you not narrate the ḥadith of each transmitter separately?”

‘He replied, “That would be too long.”

‘We said, “We are satisfied with that.”

‘He disappeared from us for a week, then returned with the Expedition of Uḥud written out in twenty volumes. We exclaimed, “Take us back to the first arrangement!” (2)’

Abū Bakr al-Khaṭīb said, “Notwithstanding the breadth of his knowledge and the vastness of his memory that we have described, al-Wāqidī did not know the Qur’an by heart.

Al-Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad al-Rāfiqī (3) informed me, ‘Aḥmad ibn Kāmil the judge narrated to us, and Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Barbarī narrated to me:

“Al-Maʾmūn said to al-Wāqidī, ‘I wish you to lead the people in the Friday prayer tomorrow.’ Al-Wāqidī declined. The caliph insisted, ‘You must.’

‘Al-Wāqidī said, “By Allah, I do not have Sūrat al-Jumuʿah memorised.”

‘Al-Maʾmūn replied, “Then I will teach it to you.” He began coaching him in the sūrah; when they reached its halfway point and al-Wāqidī had learned that portion, the caliph started on the second half. Whenever al-Wāqidī mastered the latter, he would forget the former, until he exhausted al-Maʾmūn, who nodded off. The caliph then said to ʿAlī ibn Ṣāliḥ, “You teach it to him.”

‘ʿAlī said, “So I did, but every time I made him learn something he would forget something else.” Then al-Maʾmūn awoke and said…’ (the report continues).”