and I kept walking, dragging my feet, until I reached their boat. They had meanwhile brought the elder as well and treated us with great kindness. We stayed with them for several days until our strength returned. Then they wrote a letter for us to the governor of a town called Rayah (1) and supplied us with hard biscuits, suwiq (roasted barley flour), and water.

We continued on foot until the last of our water and provisions was gone, so we trudged on in hunger along the seashore. There we came upon a turtle the size of a shield. Taking a large stone, we struck its shell, which split open, and inside we found something like the yolk of an egg. We scooped it up and drank it until the gnawing hunger subsided. After that we reached the town of Rayah, delivered the letter to its official, and he lodged us in his own house. Each day he would serve us gourds, saying to his servant, “Bring them the blessed squash,” and for several days he offered it together with bread.

One of our party finally said, “Will you not call for that wretched meat?” The host overheard this and said, “I understand Persian; my grandmother was from Herat.” After that he brought us meat as well and then provided supplies for our journey to Egypt (2).

I heard my father say: “I began writing down hadith in the year 209 AH, when I was fourteen years old. I wrote from ʿAttab ibn Ziyad al-Marwazi (3) in the year 210 AH. When he later came to us as a pilgrim (4), I was in Rayy imparting traditions from Abu ʿAbd al-Rahman the Qur’an-reciter. People would go out to him, listen to him, and return while I was still in Rayy (5).”