Musallam ibn ʿAllān and Muʾammal ibn Muḥammad transmitted to us by ijāzah (formal authorization), saying:

Abū al-Yaman al-Kindī informed us; Abū Manṣūr al-Shaybānī informed us; Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī, the ḥāfiẓ, informed us. He said: Muḥammad ibn Makkī al-Miṣrī granted me authorization, and Naṣr ibn Ibrāhīm the jurist related to me on his authority; Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Zurayq informed us; al-Ḥasan ibn Rashīq informed us; Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Ḥakīm al-Ṣadafī narrated to us:

“I heard al-Ḥasan ibn ʿArafah being asked, ‘How many years do you count for yourself?’

He replied, ‘One hundred and ten years. None of the people of knowledge has reached this age except me.’”

I said: “Hassān ibn Thābit, Ḥakīm ibn Ḥizām and others among the Companions also reached this age, as did Suwayd ibn Ghafalah and a number of the Successors; and among those who matched him in years was Abū al-ʿAbbās al-Ḥajjār.”

Al-Ḥasan ibn Muḥammad al-Khallāl, the ḥāfiẓ, said: “In the year 150 AH were born al-Shāfiʿī, Bishr al-Ḥāfī, Khalaf al-Bazzār and al-Ḥasan ibn ʿArafah.”

Abū al-Fatḥ al-Azdī said: Mūsā ibn Muḥammad al-Azdī narrated to me: “I heard al-Ḥasan ibn ʿArafah say, ‘Wakiʿ narrated several hadiths to me. When morning came I asked him about them. He said, “Did I not relate them to you yesterday?” I replied, “Indeed, but I had doubts.” He said, “Do not doubt, for doubt is from Satan.”’”

I (the author) say: Today, in the year 735 AH, the loftiest chain of transmission terminates at the hadith of al-Ḥasan ibn ʿArafah, just as the highest obtainable chain in the year six-hundred-and-sixty-something AH likewise ended with him.