Abu Ḥātim related: Harmalah narrated to us, and he in turn cited al-Shāfiʿī as saying, “Beware of the one-eyed, the lame, the cross-eyed, the fair-haired, the beardless, indeed everyone who is physically defective; such a person is prone to crookedness and dealing with him is difficult.” (1)

Al-ʿAkarī said: I heard al-Rabīʿ recount, “I, al-Muzanī, and al-Buwayṭī were sitting with al-Shāfiʿī. He looked at us and said to me, ‘You will die absorbed in ḥadīth.’ Concerning al-Muzanī he remarked, ‘If Satan were to debate this man, he would cut him off and defeat him.’ And to al-Buwayṭī he said, ‘You will die in iron.’” Al-Rabīʿ added, “During the days of the Inquisition I visited al-Buwayṭī and found him shackled in fetters.” (2)

On another occasion a man came and asked al-Shāfiʿī about a legal issue. Al-Shāfiʿī asked, “Are you a weaver?” The man answered, “I have hired workers.”

Aḥmad ibn Salamah al-Naysābūrī reported: Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Idrīs, the copyist for al-Ḥumaydī, told us, “I heard al-Ḥumaydī say that al-Shāfiʿī said, ‘I travelled to Yemen in search of books on physiognomy; I wrote them out and gathered them all.’” (3)

Al-Rabīʿ also said, “My brother once passed by, and al-Shāfiʿī, who had never seen him before, asked, ‘Is that your brother?’ I replied, ‘Yes.’” (4)

Abu ʿAlī ibn Ḥamkān narrated: Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Hārūn al-Hamadhānī al-ʿAdl related to us, Abū Muslim al-Kajjī related to us, al-Aṣmaʿī related from al-Shāfiʿī: “The foundation of—”