and if I had ever seen al-Shāfiʿī debating you, I would have thought him a ravenous beast about to devour you—yet he is the very man who taught people how to formulate proofs. (1)

Al-Rabīʿ ibn Sulaymān said: “Al-Shāfiʿī—may Allah have mercy on him—was asked about a question, and, pleased with himself, he composed these lines:
Whenever knotty problems confront me,
I lay bare their truths through careful thought;
No hanger-on am I among men,
going round to this one and that: ‘What is the news?’
Instead, I school the two small faculties—
opener of good and dispeller of harm.” (2)

Hārūn ibn Saʿīd al-Aylī related: “Had al-Shāfiʿī argued that this very stone pillar was made of wood, he would have prevailed—such was his mastery of debate.” (3)

Al-Zaʿfarānī said: “Al-Shāfiʿī came to us in Baghdad in 195 AH, stayed for two years, and then travelled to Mecca. He returned in 198 AH, remained with us for several months, and then departed—meaning for Egypt.

I say: He had already visited Baghdad in the early 180s AH, and Hārūn al-Rashīd rewarded him with money. He kept company with Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan for a time, and he never met the judge Abū Yūsuf, for the latter had died before al-Shāfiʿī arrived. (4)