I said to him, “Why did you keep me out?”
He answered, “So that I could cover myself.”
I asked, “What has happened?”
He replied, “My clothes have been stolen.”

I rushed home, brought him one hundred dirhams and offered them to him, but he refused. I said, “Then take it as a loan,” yet he still would not accept. I went down to twenty dirhams and he continued to refuse. I rose and said, “It is not permissible for you to let yourself perish.”

He said, “Go back.”
I went back, and he said, “Did you not listen with me to Ibn ʿUyaynah?”
I replied, “Indeed.”
He asked, “Would you like me to copy it for you?”
I said, “Yes.”
He said, “Then buy me some paper.”
So he copied it for a few dirhams, with which he bought two garments.

Al-Ḥākim relates: I heard Bakrān ibn Aḥmad al-Ḥanẓalī, the ascetic of Baghdad, say: I heard ʿAbdullāh ibn Aḥmad say: I heard my father say:

“We arrived in Ṣanʿāʾ—Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn and I. I went ahead to visit ʿAbd al-Razzāq in his village while Yaḥyā stayed behind. When I approached to knock at his door, a grocer opposite the house said, ‘Easy! Do not knock, for the shaykh is held in awe.’

“So I sat down. Shortly before sunset he came out; I leapt toward him, with some hadiths I had selected in my hand, greeted him and said, ‘Narrate these to me—may Allah have mercy on you—for I am a stranger.’

“He said, ‘Who are you?’ and rebuked me. I replied, ‘I am Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal.’

“Startled, he drew me close and said, ‘By Allah, are you Abū ʿAbd Allāh?’

“Then he took the hadiths and read them until darkness fell. He said to the grocer, ‘Bring the lamp,’ and the time for Maghrib passed—ʿAbd al-Razzāq used to delay the Maghrib prayer.”

Al-Khallāl reports: al-Ramādī told us: I heard ʿAbd al-Razzāq; when he mentioned Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal his eyes filled with tears and he said:

“I was informed that his funds had run out. I took him by the hand, stood him behind the door with no one else present and said, ‘Gold dinars rarely remain with us; whenever we sell the harvest we invest the proceeds elsewhere. I have found ten dinars with the women—take them, and I hope you will not spend them until something else is arranged.’

“He said to me, ‘Abū Bakr, if I had accepted…’