Hanbal said, “I heard Abū ʿAbd Allah say: ‘The most knowledgeable among us regarding the narrators is Yahya ibn Maʿin; the one with the keenest grasp of the thematic chapters is Sulayman al-Shadhakuni; and the one with the strongest memory for the lengthy reports is ʿAli.’
Abū ʿAbd Allah al-Hakim related: I heard al-Zubayr ibn ʿAbd al-Wahid, the ḥāfiẓ, say: Ibrāhim ibn ʿAbd al-Wahid al-Bakri narrated to us, “I heard Jaʿfar al-Tayālisi say:
‘Ahmad ibn Hanbal and Yahya ibn Maʿin once prayed in the Rusafa Mosque. A storyteller stood up and proclaimed, “Ahmad ibn Hanbal and Yahya ibn Maʿin have narrated to us, saying: ʽAbd al-Razzaq informed us, reporting from Maʿmar, from Qatadah, from Anas, who said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said, ‘Whoever says, Lā ilāha illā Allah (There is no god but Allah), Allah creates from each word a bird whose beak is of gold and whose plumage is of coral.’”
‘He then launched into an account that filled about twenty pages (1). Ahmad kept looking at Yahya and Yahya kept looking at him, both of them saying, “We have never heard of this until this very moment.” They remained silent until he finished (2) his tale, collected his donations, and then sat beneath the pulpit waiting. Yahya motioned to him; the man approached, expecting a gratuity. Yahya asked, “Who narrated this hadith to you?”
‘He replied, “Ahmad and Ibn Maʿin.”
‘Yahya said, “I am Yahya, and this is Ahmad. We have never heard this report at all. If you must lie, then attribute it to someone other than us.”
‘The man asked, “You are Yahya ibn Maʿin?”
‘“Yes,” he answered.
‘The man retorted, “I have always heard that Yahya ibn Maʿin is a fool; I only realised it just now. As though there were no other Yahya ibn Maʿin and Ahmad ibn Hanbal in the world! I have taken transmission from seventeen different Ahmad ibn Hanbal and Yahya ibn Maʿin!”
‘At this Ahmad placed his sleeve over his face and said, “Let him go.” So the man departed, mocking them as he left.’
This is a remarkable story, yet I do not know the narrator al-Bakri; I fear he may have fabricated it.
From Aḥmad ibn ʿUqbah, who said: I heard Yahya ibn Maʿin say, “Whoever is not…"