Sālih said: “A few days later a letter arrived from al-Mutawakkil ʿalā Allāh addressed to Ibn Tāhir, in which the caliph ordered him to present us his condolences and to have the books conveyed to him. I took the books and said, ‘They are our audition copies; they must remain in our hands so that we can keep them and have them transcribed.’ He replied, ‘I shall inform the Commander of the Faithful.’ He kept postponing the matter with the prince, and—praise be to Allah—the books never left our possession.

Al-Khallāl narrated: Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn told us; al-Marwadhī told us; Abu Muḥammad al-Yamānī in Ṭarsus related to me:

‘I was in Yemen when a man said to me, “My daughter has been seized by an unseen being.” I went with him to an exorcist in Yemen. The exorcist recited over her and bound the spirit with an oath not to return, and she remained well for about six months. Then her father came back and said, “It has come back to her.” I said, “Go again to the exorcist.” He went, and when the exorcist pronounced the formula over her, the jinni spoke, saying, “Woe to you! Did I not bind you with a covenant that you would not approach her?” He replied, “News of the death of Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal reached us, and every righteous jinn went to attend him except the rebellious ones. I stayed behind with them.”’

Among the dreams:

With the chain that reaches Ibn Abī Ḥātim: Abū Zurʿah narrated to us; I heard Muḥammad ibn Mihrān al-Jammāl say:

‘I saw Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal in my sleep, as though he were wearing a striped—or perhaps dyed—cloak, and as though he were in Rayy intending to proceed to the congregational mosque. I asked some dream interpreters about it, and one of them said, “This is a man who will become famous for his virtue.”’

With the same chain to al-Jammāl he added: ‘Not long after that, news reached us concerning his affair with the Inquisition (miḥnah).’