Yūsuf, Allah is sufficient.’

Yaʿqūb grew angry, turned to me and said, “I have never seen anything more astonishing than what we are in: I beg him to utter a single word that I can carry to the Commander of the Faithful, yet he will not do it.”

Yaʿqūb then wrote to al-Mutawakkil, informing him of what had happened. We entered the army camp while my father walked with his head lowered, covered. Yaʿqūb said to him, “Uncover your head.” He did so.

A page on his way to the palace arrived and conveyed a message to my father through Yaḥyā ibn Harthamah: “The Commander of the Faithful greets you with salām and says, ‘Praise be to Allah who did not allow the innovators to rejoice over you. You know the condition of Ibn Abī Dāwūd; you must therefore speak about him with what is due to Allah.’”

Yaḥyā departed, and my father was lodged in the house of Itākh. ʿAlī ibn al-Jahm came and said, “The Commander of the Faithful has ordered ten thousand for you in place of the sum he previously distributed, and that your shaykh not learn of it, lest it grieve him.”

After that Muḥammad ibn Muʿāwiyah came and said, “The Commander of the Faithful frequently mentions you and says, ‘Stay here and teach ḥadith.’” He replied, “I am weak.”

Then Yaḥyā ibn Khāqān came to him and said, “O Abū ʿAbd Allāh, the Commander of the Faithful has instructed me to bring you so that you may ride to his son al-Muʿtazz.” He also said to me, “The Commander of the Faithful has ordered that a stipend of four thousand be paid to him and to your relatives.” ⦗1⦘

The next day Yaḥyā returned and said, “O Abū ʿAbd Allāh, will you ride?” He answered, “That is up to you.”

He put on his waist-wrap and his leather socks—the socks had been with him for fifteen years and had been patched ⦗2⦘ with several patches ⦗3⦘—and Yaḥyā signaled that he should wear a skullcap. I said, “He owns no skullcap…” until he said: “So he entered the residence of al-Muʿtazz, and …”