Al-Khallāl said: I heard al-Marwazī say, “Abū ʿAbdillāh would send me to take care of certain needs and would say, ‘Speak what you have already said; it is on my own tongue—I myself have said it.’” (1)

Al-Khallāl also related: Abū Bakr (2) set out for the jihad, and the people accompanied him as far as Sāmarrāʾ. He kept turning them back, but they refused to leave him. When they were counted, those remaining in Sāmarrāʾ—apart from the few who had turned back—numbered about fifty thousand. Someone said to him, “O Abū Bakr, praise Allah, for a banner has been raised in your honor.” He wept and replied, “This banner is not mine; it belongs to Abū ʿAbdillāh Aḥmad.” (3)

Al-Khaṭīb, speaking about al-Marwazī, said: “Among Aḥmad’s companions he held first place for his piety and merit. Aḥmad felt at ease with him and opened up to him, and it was al-Marwazī who closed his eyes and washed him when he died. He transmitted a great many legal questions from him.” (4)

ʿAbd al-Wahhāb al-Warrāq was asked, “If someone speaks ill of Abū Ṭālib or al-Marwazī, is it not better to keep one’s distance from such a person?” He replied, “Indeed. If anyone maligns Aḥmad’s companions, suspect him—suspect him again—for he harbors some hidden evil, and what he really aims at is Aḥmad himself.”

Al-Khallāl reported: Aḥmad ibn Ḥamdūn told us that al-Marwazī said, “It was as though the Day of Resurrection had dawned. The angels surrounded the children of Adam, proclaiming, ‘Those who renounced the world have triumphed today.’ The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, was saying, ‘O Aḥmad, come forward to be presented before Allah.’ I saw Aḥmad—and al-Marwazī alone behind him—and Aḥmad was seen mounted. Then it was said….”