ibn Aḥmad ibn Baqī, who said: “My father related to me, and my mother told me that she once saw my father with an exceedingly tall man. When she asked him who it was, he replied, ‘I pray that you will become a righteous woman; that was al-Khidr, peace be upon him.’ (1)

‘Abd al-Raḥmān passed on other reports of this kind from his grandfather—Allah knows best how sound they are—and then added:

‘My grandfather had apportioned his days among various acts of devotion. After performing the dawn prayer he would recite his hizb (assigned portion) of the Qur’an from the mushaf (written codex), amounting to one-sixth of the Book. He also completed a full reading of the Qur’an during his prayer each and every day and night. In the last third of every night he would go out to his mosque and finish that recitation just before daybreak. When he had concluded his hizb from the mushaf he would stand in an exceptionally long prayer, then return to his house. By that time the students had gathered in his mosque; he would renew his ablution, go out to them, and when the successive turns were over he would ascend to the mosque’s upper chamber and pray there until noon. He himself would begin the adhan, then descend and read aloud to us until the afternoon prayer, praying and dictating.

‘Sometimes, during what remained of the day, he would go out and sit among the graves, weeping and taking admonition. When the sun set he would return to his mosque, pray, then go back home and break his fast. He fasted continually except on Friday. He would come out to the mosque, his neighbours would come out to him, and he would speak with them about their religious and worldly concerns. Then he would pray the night prayer, enter his house, converse with his family, sleep only as much as his soul required, and rise again. This was his practice until he died.

‘He was hardy and strong on foot: he once walked with a weak man seeking redress all the way to Seville, with another to Elvira, and with a frail woman to Jaén.’