and he would scarcely deviate in that regard from the Seven canonical readings, and hosts beyond counting learned from him.

Ḥamdan ibn Hāniʾ, the reciter, said: I heard him remark, “One chapter of grammar proved obscure to me, so I spent eighty thousand dirhams until I mastered it.”

Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAbd al-Malik al-Maymūnī relates: A man said to Abū ʿAbd Allāh, “I went to Khalaf al-Bazzār to admonish him, for it had reached me that he had transmitted a ḥadith from al-Ahwaṣ, from ʿAbd Allāh, stating, ‘Allah has not created anything greater …,’” and he mentioned the remainder of the report.
Abū ʿAbd Allāh replied, “It was not proper for him to narrate that in these days”—meaning the time of the inquisition—“and the wording is: ‘Allah has not created any heaven or earth greater than the Verse of the Footstool.’ (1)”

When this wording was put to Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal on the day of the ordeal, he said, “Here the word creation applies to the heavens, the earth, and such things—not to the Qurʾān.”

I say: This is exactly how a ḥadith scholar ought to act. He should not publicize reports whose outward sense is exploited by the Jahmiyyah, … , and the people of whims, nor those ḥadith that speak of attributes that are not firmly established; for whenever you relate to a people a report their minds cannot grasp, it becomes a trial for some of them. (2) Therefore, do not withhold knowledge that is truly knowledge, yet do not hand it to the ignorant who will only cause turmoil for you, or to those who will draw from it what harms them.

As for Khalaf, Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn, al-Nasāʾī, and others declared him “reliable.” (3)
Al-Dāraqutnī said, “He was devout and virtuous.” (4)