He said, “I heard my father relate: ‘While standing at the door of Abū al-Walīd al-Ṭiyālisī I declared:

“Whoever can bring me a rare report, complete with its chain of transmission, the wording of which I have never heard in a sound form, has a dirham due from me to give in charity.”

A number of people were present—Abū Zurʿa among them, and others of lesser standing. My purpose was simply that someone should recite to me a narration unknown to me so they might say, “It is with So-and-so,” whereupon I would go to him and hear it for myself (1). Yet no one succeeded in confronting me with any such unfamiliar ḥadīth (2).’

I heard my father say: ‘Muḥammad ibn Yazīd al-Asfāṭī was passionately devoted to tafsīr and to memorizing it. One day he asked, “What do you have memorized concerning the Almighty’s words: ‘so they traveled widely in the lands’ (Qāf 50:36)?” The ḥadīth scholars kept looking at one another, so I said:

“Abū Ṣāliḥ narrated to us, from Muʿāwiya ibn Ṣāliḥ, from ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭalḥa, from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: ‘They journeyed through the lands.’”

He found the answer commendable (3).’

I heard my father say: ‘When Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā al-Naysābūrī came to Rayy, I recited to him thirteen ḥadīths from al-Zuhrī’s transmissions. He recognized only three of them; the rest were neither with him nor did he know them (4).’

I heard my father say: ‘In the first year I went out seeking ḥadīth, I stayed on the road for seven years. I counted the distance I walked on foot: it exceeded one thousand farsakhs.

I (the narrator) remark: That is roughly four months’ travel along the main route.

He continued: “After that I stopped keeping tally. I set out from Bahrain to Egypt on foot, then to Ramla on foot, then to Damascus, then to Antioch and Tarsus, then—”’