and there he was, seated on a raised bench ⦗1⦘ in the courtyard. Yaḥyā went up and sat next to him, then said, “O Abū ʿAbd Allāh, the Commander of the Faithful has brought you here so that he may delight in your nearness and place his son ʿAbd Allāh in your care.”

One of the servants later told me that al-Mutawakkil was sitting behind a curtain and said to his mother, “Mother, the house has become illuminated ⦗2⦘.”

A servant then arrived carrying a cloth. Yaḥyā took it and related how they dressed Abū ʿAbd Allāh in a shirt, a skullcap, and a cloak while he did not even move his hand; then Yaḥyā withdrew.

People had been saying that he would robe him in the black garments.

When he returned, however, he took the clothes off, began to weep, and said, “I have stayed clear of these people for sixty years, only to be tried with them at the very end of my life! I do not think I am free of blame for having entered upon this youth—so what of someone whose advice I am obliged to offer? O Ṣāliḥ, send these clothes to Baghdad to be sold, give their price in charity, and let none of you buy anything from them.”

So I sent them to Yaʿqūb ibn Bukhtān ⦗3⦘; he sold them and distributed the proceeds, and the skullcap remained with me.

He then spent fifteen days, breaking his fast every third day on one-eighth of a measure of sawīq. After that he would break his fast one night on a single loaf and the next night not at all. Whenever the table of food was brought, it would be set in the vestibule so that he would not see it. When the heat became oppressive, he would wet a rag and place it on his chest. Each day Ibn Māsawayh was sent to examine him; he said, “O Abū ʿAbd Allāh, I am favorably disposed toward you and your companions, and you suffer from nothing but weakness and scant nourishment.” ⦗4⦘