—I estimate that he has preserved from him more than ten thousand reports; in fact ʿAlī has narrated from him more than Musaddad did.
Yaḥyā used to draw ʿAlī close, for he was his friend.
Abū Qudāmah al-Sarakhsī said, “I heard ʿAlī say, ‘It was as though the Pleiades descended until I reached out and grasped them.’”
Abū Qudāmah added, “Allah made his dream come true: in hadith he rose to a level no one else attained.”
Yaʿqūb al-Fasawī said, “I heard ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī ʿAbbād al-Qalzumi—who was one of ʿAlī’s companions—relate:
‘One day ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī came to us and said, “Last night I dreamed that I stretched out my hand and seized stars.”
We accompanied him to a dream-interpreter, who said, “You will attain knowledge, so mind how you conduct yourself.”
One of our fellows suggested, “Why not apply yourself to fiqh?”—meaning speculative jurisprudence—but he replied, “If I devote myself to that, I will be stripped of what I am presently engaged in.”’”
Aḥmad ibn Salāmah informed us, from Ibn Būsh, from Abū Saʿd al-Ṣayrafī, from Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī al-Ṣūrī, who said: I heard ʿAbd al-Ghanī ibn Saʿīd say, “I heard Walīd ibn al-Qāsim say, ‘I heard Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Nasāʾī remark:
“It is as though Allah created ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī for this very discipline.”’”
Ibrāhīm ibn Maʿqil related, “I heard al-Bukhārī say, ‘I never felt small before anyone except ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī.’”
ʿAbbās al-ʿAnbarī said, “ʿAlī attained such a rank that, had it been decreed for him to remain upon it, he might even have been placed ahead of al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī. People would write down how he stood and sat, the clothes he wore, and everything he said or did—details of that sort.”