It was also related that a man said, “In our part of Khurasan people imagine that Aḥmad is unlike other human beings; they think he is one of the angels.”

Another remarked, “A single glance from Aḥmad, in our estimation, is equal to a year’s worship.”

I say: This is unwarranted exaggeration, yet it arises from love for the friend of Allah for Allah’s sake.

Al-Marwadhī said: I saw a Christian physician coming out from Aḥmad’s house with a monk at his side. He told me, “He (Aḥmad) asked me to bring him so that he might see Abū ʿAbd Allāh.”

I later brought a Christian into Abū ʿAbd Allāh’s presence, and the man said to him, “For years I have longed to meet you. Your remaining alive is not a boon for Islam alone, but for all of creation; there is not a single one of our own people who is not pleased with you.”

I then said to Abū ʿAbd Allāh, “I hope that supplications are being made for you in every land.”

He replied, “O Abū Bakr, once a man truly knows himself, people’s words do him no good.”

ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad said: My father travelled to Tarsus on foot, and he performed the pilgrimage twice—perhaps three times—on foot. He was the most patient of people in solitude, whereas Bishr could not bear to be alone; he would constantly go out here and there.

ʿAbbās al-Dūrī said: ʿAlī ibn Abī Fazārah (1)—our neighbour—narrated to us:

“My mother had been bedridden for about twenty years. One day she said to me, ‘Go to Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal and ask him to pray for me.’

“So I went, knocked at his door while he was in the entranceway, and he called out, ‘Who is it?’

“I answered, ‘A man whose mother—she is bedridden—has asked me to request your supplication.’

“I sensed in his voice the tone of an angry man as he said, ‘We are more in need that you pray to Allah for us.’

“So I turned to leave. An old woman came out and said, ‘You have left him praying for her.’ I then returned to our house,