Khudayr, who informed us; Abū Ṭālib al-Yūsufī informed us; Ibrāhīm ibn ʿUmar informed us; ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz informed us; Ibn Abī Ḥātim narrated to us; Aḥmad ibn Sinān narrated to us, saying, “I heard ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mahdī say:
‘Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal was with me. He said, “We have examined the points on which Wakīʿ disagrees with you—or, more generally, the points on which Wakīʿ departs from the rest of the scholars—and they amount to a little over sixty (1) hadiths.”’

Ṣāliḥ ibn Aḥmad transmitted from his father, who said:
‘Hushaym died when I was twenty years old, and I had memorised everything I had heard from him.’

Among his physical descriptions:
Ibn Dharīḥ al-ʿUkbarī said, ‘I went looking for Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal (2). I greeted him; he was an elderly man whose beard had been dyed, tall, brown-skinned—indeed, very dark.’

Aḥmad also said, ‘I heard from ʿAlī ibn Hāshim in the year 179; when I came to the next session, he had already passed away. That was the very year Mālik died. I stayed in Mecca in 197, and I stayed with ʿAbd al-Razzaq in 199. I saw Ibn Wahb in Mecca, but I did not write anything from him.’

Muḥammad ibn Ḥātim said, ‘Hanbal—the imam’s grandfather—was appointed over Sarakhs and was one of the partisans of the daʿwah movement. I was told that al-Musayyab ibn Zuhayr struck him in Bukhara because he had roused the troops.’

Muḥammad ibn ʿAbbās (3) the grammarian said, ‘I saw Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal: his face was handsome, his build medium. He dyed his beard with henna, though not a deep crimson; a few black hairs remained. His clothes were thick and white; I saw him wrapped in a turban, with a waist-wrapper as well.’