you recognise, and I will eat from what I recognise.’

Ḥusn then came to me and said, ‘A man has arrived carrying a satchel (1) of dried fruit and a letter.’ I got up, read the letter, and there it said: ‘O Abū ʿAbd Allāh, I invested some goods for you in Samarkand, made a profit, and have forwarded to you four thousand [coins] together with some fruit I personally picked from an orchard I inherited from my father.’ I gathered the children, we went inside, and I wept, saying, ‘Father, you eat only what you recognise, and I will eat what I recognise.’

When we had eaten, the young man disappeared; afterwards he would return only once we had finished. Three days later we suddenly found ourselves in Mecca.

This narrative is objectionable.

Qāḍī Abū Yaʿlā said: I copied it from the handwriting of Abū Isḥāq ibn Shāqlā:
‘ʿUmar ibn ʿAlī informed me; Jaʿfar al-Razzāz—our neighbour—narrated to us; I heard Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn al-Mawlā say, “I heard ʿAbd Allāh …,” and he cited the story.’

It is most likely a fabrication of al-Razzāz.

We were informed through Ibn al-Jawzī: ʿAbd al-Wahhāb ibn al-Mubārak told us; al-Mubārak ibn ʿAbd al-Jabbār told us; Ibrāhīm ibn ʿUmar al-Barmakī told us; Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl al-Warrāq told us; ʿAbd Allāh ibn Isḥāq al-Baghawī told us; Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb al-Ṣaffār told us, saying:
‘We were with Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, and I said, “Pray to Allah for us.” He responded:
“O Allah, You know that You have favoured us with more than we desire, so make us devoted to what You desire. O Allah, we ask You by the power with which You said to the heavens and the earth, ‘Come willingly or unwillingly,’ and they said, ‘We come willingly’ (Fussilat 11). O Allah, grant us success in attaining Your good pleasure. O Allah, we seek refuge in You from poverty save before You and from humiliation save for You.”’

The transmitters up to al-Ṣaffār are recognised authorities, but I do not know him, and the report is objectionable.

ʿUmar ibn al-Qawwās informed us, from al-Kindī; al-Karūkhī narrated to us; Shaykh al-Islām al-Anṣārī narrated to us; Abū Yaʿqūb narrated to us; Zāhir ibn Aḥmad narrated to us; ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Mubashshir narrated to us; I heard al-Ramadī say: I heard ʿAbd al-Razzaq—when Aḥmad was mentioned his eyes filled with tears—who said:
‘He arrived, and I was told that his provisions had been exhausted. I therefore took ten dinars and offered them to him. He smiled and said, “Abū Bakr, if I were to accept anything from people, I would accept it from you,” yet he would not accept anything from me.’

Al-Khallāl said: Abū Ghālib ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad informed me; Ṣāliḥ ibn Aḥmad narrated to me