Al-Khallāl relates: ʿAlī ibn Sahl told us: “I saw Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn at ʿAffān’s place, and Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal was with him. ʿAffān said, ‘There will be no hadith today.’ Yaḥyā replied, ‘Will you turn Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal away after he has come to you?’ He answered, ‘The door is locked and the maidservant is not here.’ Yaḥyā said, ‘I shall open it.’ He muttered something over the lock and opened it. ʿAffān exclaimed, ‘A pick-lock afashshāsh (1) as well!’—and then he proceeded to narrate to them.

Al-Marwadhī reports: I said to Aḥmad, ‘Did you faint—or lose consciousness—while with Ibn ʿUyaynah?’ He replied, ‘Yes, in his vestibule; the people crowded around me and I passed out.’ It is also related that Sufyān said on that occasion, ‘How can I relate hadith when the best of people has died?’

Muhannā ibn Yaḥyā said: ‘I have seen Ibn ʿUyaynah, Wakīʿ, Baqiyyah, ʿAbd al-Razzaq, Ḍamrah, and many others, yet I have never seen anyone more complete than Aḥmad in knowledge, asceticism, and piety’—and he went on to mention further qualities.

Nūḥ ibn Ḥabīb al-Qūmasī said: ‘I greeted Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal in the year 198 AH at the Khayf Mosque, and he was issuing far-reaching legal responses.’

A certain shaykh, who possessed a book written in Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal’s own hand, said: ‘We stayed with Ibn ʿUyaynah for a year. After some days I lost track of Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, so I asked and was directed to where he was. I went and found him in something like a cave in Jiyād (2). I said, “Peace be upon you—may I enter?” He answered, “No.” Then he said, “Enter.” I entered, and there he was, covered with a worn piece of felt…’