Muhammad al-Warraq said: “Abu ʿAbd Allah once entered the bathhouse at Firabr while I was in its cloakroom looking after his clothes. When he came out I handed him his garments and he put them on; then I passed him his khuff (leather socks). He said, ‘You have touched something that contains a hair of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him.’
I asked, ‘In which part of the khuff is it?’ but he would not tell me. I therefore assumed it was in the upper section, between the outer leather and the lining.
His encounter with Muhammad ibn Yahya al-Dhuhli—may Allah have mercy on them both—
Al-Hakim Abu ʿAbd Allah narrated: “I heard Muhammad ibn Hamid the cloth-merchant say: I heard al-Hasan ibn Muhammad ibn Jabir say: I heard Muhammad ibn Yahya tell us, ‘When Muhammad ibn Ismaʿil al-Bukhari arrived in Nishapur, go to this righteous man and listen to him.’ So the people went to him and flocked to hear his teaching until attendance at Muhammad ibn Yahya’s own circle declined; after that he grew jealous and spoke against him.” (1)
Abu Ahmad ibn ʿAdi said: “A number of the shaykhs told me that when Muhammad ibn Ismaʿil reached Nishapur the people gathered around him. Some of the senior scholars of the city became envious when they saw the crowds turning to him and assembling at his sessions. One of them told the hadith students, ‘Muhammad ibn Ismaʿil maintains that uttering the Qur’an is created; test him about it in the gathering.’
When the people attended al-Bukhari’s session, a man stood up and asked, ‘Abu ʿAbd Allah, what do you say about articulating the Qur’an— is it created or uncreated?’
Al-Bukhari turned away and did not answer him. The man repeated the question, and again he turned aside. When he asked a third time, al-Bukhari turned toward him and said: