—upon his chest, and would remain absolutely erect, like a fixed wooden post.

He went on: “He was also one of the most handsome of men: it was as though pomegranate seeds had been sprinkled over his face, his cheeks were like rose-petals, and his beard was snow-white.”

Aḥmad ibn Isḥāq al-Ṣibghī said: “I heard Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb al-Thaqafī say that Ismāʿīl ibn Aḥmad, the governor of Khurāsān, used to grant Muḥammad ibn Naṣr four thousand dirhams each year; his brother Isḥāq gave him the same amount, and the people of Samarqand likewise gave him the same. He would spend that sum from one year to the next, even though he had no dependants. Someone said to him, ‘Why do you not set something aside for hard times?’

He replied, ‘Glory be to Allah! I stayed in Egypt for such-and-such years; my food, my clothing, my paper (1), my ink, in short everything I spent on myself in an entire year came to twenty (2) dirhams. Do you imagine that if this money were lost, that would no longer suffice?’

Al-Ḥāfiẓ al-Sulaymānī said: “Muḥammad ibn Naṣr, the Imam of the Imams, one favored from heaven, settled in Samarqand. He heard ḥadith from Yaḥyā ibn Yaḥyā, ʿAbdān, ʿAbd Allāh al-Musnadī, and Isḥāq. Among his writings are Taʿẓīm Qadr al-Ṣalāh (The Magnification of the Prayer) and Rafʿ al-Yadayn (Raising the Hands), along with other works he described as ‘miraculous.’ ”

Thus spoke al-Sulaymānī—yet there is no miracle except the Qur’an.

He then said: “He and Ṣāliḥ Jazara died in the year 294 AH.”

Abū al-Ghanāʾim al-Qaysī, together with a number of others who had heard Abū al-Yaman al-Kindī, informed me, saying: Abū Manṣūr al-Qazzāz informed us; Abū Bakr al-Khaṭīb informed us; al-Jawharī informed us; Ibn Ḥayyawayh informed us; ʿUthmān ibn Jaʿfar al-Labbān narrated to us; Muḥammad ibn Naṣr related to me:

“I left Egypt accompanied by a slave-girl and took ship intending for Mecca. The vessel sank, and I lost two thousand …”