Among those spurious tales is the following:
Al-Ḥusayn b. Muḥammad narrated to us; Ibrāhīm b. Muḥammad b. Ibrāhīm al-Qāḍī narrated to us; Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Jawharī narrated to me; Yūsuf b. Yaʿqūb narrated to us; I heard ʿAlī b. Muḥammad al-Qurashī say:

“When Aḥmad was stripped for the flogging and left only in his trousers, the blows rained down until the draw-string snapped. He moved his lips, and I saw two hands emerge from beneath him and tighten the trousers.

“When they finished the beating we asked him what he had said. He replied, ‘I prayed: O He of Whom even the Throne knows not where He is save He Himself—if I am upon the truth, do not allow my private parts to be exposed.’”

Al-Bayhaqī cited this story in ‘The Merits of Aḥmad’ and did not dare pronounce it baseless. Instead he transmitted it from Abū Masʿūd al-Bajalī, from Ibn Jahḍam—who is a liar—who said: Abū Bakr al-Najjād narrated to us; Ibn Abī al-ʿAwwām al-Riyāḥī narrated to us a report similar to it.

In that version it is said that Aḥmad’s waist-wrapper slipped, he moved his lips, and I saw a golden hand come forth from beneath the cloth by the power of Allah, whereupon the crowd screamed.

Ibn al-Farrāʾ informed me; Ibn Qudāmah narrated to us; Ibn Khuḍayr narrated to us; Ibn Yūsuf narrated to us; al-Barmakī narrated to us; ʿAlī b. Mardak narrated to us; Ibn Abī Ḥātim narrated to us; Aḥmad b. Sinān narrated:

“It reached him that while al-Muʿtaṣim was having Aḥmad flogged, he noticed something tied up in Aḥmad’s sleeve and asked, ‘What is this?’

“He replied, ‘A hair from the hair of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him.’

“Al-Muʿtaṣim said, ‘Hand it over,’ and took it from him.”

Aḥmad b. Sinān added, “The man ought to have shown him mercy when he saw that a strand of the Prophet’s hair was with him in such a moment.”

Through the same chain, Ibn Abī Ḥātim said: Abū al-Faḍl Ṣāliḥ said:

“Once he was released he went home, and was then taken to the infirmary (al-Matbaq). A specialist in assessing flogging injuries was brought to examine his wounds. Looking at the marks he said, ‘I have seen men struck a thousand lashes, but never a beating like this. They dragged the whip across his back and across his front.’ He then picked up a probe and inserted it into some of the…"