Ismaʿil al-Saffar said: Abu al-ʿAynaʾ narrated to us, saying:
“Al-Jahiz and I fabricated the hadith of Fadak (1). We then brought it before the shaykhs of Baghdad, and they all rejected it except Ibn Shaybah al-ʿAlawi, who remarked, ‘The ending of this report bears no resemblance to its beginning.’”
Al-Saffar added: “Abu al-ʿAynaʾ continued to relate it even after he had repented.”

Al-Jahiz was asked, “How are you?”
He replied, “The vizier voices my opinions, the Caliph’s gifts reach me in an unbroken stream, I eat the fattest of birds and wear the softest of clothes, and I remain patient until Allah brings relief.”
Someone said, “But what you are enjoying now is relief itself.”
He retorted, “Rather, I would like to hold the caliphate myself and have Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al-Malik—the vizier—frequent my court.”

He is also the one who said:
“The sickness of greed has no cure,
and the malady of ignorance no physician.” (2)

He further said, “I presented Kitab al-Hayawan (The Book of Animals) to Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al-Malik, and he gave me five thousand dinars. I presented Kitab al-Bayan wa al-Tabyin (The Book of Eloquence and Exposition) to Ahmad ibn Abi Duʿad, and he gave me the same. I presented Kitab al-Zarʿ wa al-Nakhl (The Book of Crops and Date-Palms) to Ibrahim al-Suli, and he likewise gave me that amount. I then returned to Basra owning an estate that needs neither demarcation nor fertilization.”