if it is eaten at the end of the meal it aids digestion.

It is also reported of Abū ʿAbd Allāh that he would respond even when he had not been personally invited.

Hamdan ibn ʿAlī said, “Aḥmad’s clothing was nothing remarkable, save that it was clean cotton.”

Al-Faḍl ibn Ziyād related, “I saw Abū ʿAbd Allāh in winter wearing two shirts with a coloured cloak between them, and sometimes a shirt and a heavy fur coat. I also noted a turban on his head above a skull-cap, and a thick mantle.

“I once heard Abū ʿImrān al-Warkanī say to him, ‘Abū ʿAbd Allāh, all of those layers of clothing?’ He laughed and replied, ‘I am delicate in cold weather.’ At times he would wear the skull-cap without the turban.

“During the summer I saw him in a shirt, trousers, and an upper wrap; he would often drape the wrap over the shirt.”

Al-Khallāl reported to us from al-Maymūnī: “I never saw Abū ʿAbd Allāh wearing a cloak (ṭaylasān) or a large shawl; all he had on was a small waist-wrapper.”

Abū Dāwūd said, “I used to notice the buttons of Abū ʿAbd Allāh’s shirt undone, and I observed that he owned more than one pair of sandals and leather socks, yet I never saw among them anything(1) dyed green, nor anything with two straps(2).

“On another occasion I saw Abū ʿAbd Allāh wearing two red sandals that each had a single strap.”

Al-Khallāl said: Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn narrated to us that Abū Bakr al-Marwadhī spoke to them about Abū ʿAbd Allāh’s manners, saying, “Abū ʿAbd Allāh never acted ignorantly; and if someone behaved ignorantly toward him, he remained patient and forbearing.”