Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī related: Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥaḍramī narrated to us, from his father, who said:

I was sitting with Junayd when a young man—wearing two khirqahs (patched Sufi mantles)—entered. After offering the greeting of peace he sat for a while. Junayd then turned to him and said, “Ask whatever you wish to ask.”

The youth said, “By what was the Caliph set apart from the marks of natural instinct?”

Junayd replied, “I detect an affectation in your words. Why do you not ask instead about what lies in your own breast—your desire to break away and to place yourself ahead of your peers?”

Junayd continued speaking while the young man kept countering him, until Junayd said, “On which plank of wood do you intend to spoil yourself?”—alluding to the cross on which he would be crucified.

Al-Sulamī added: I heard Abū ʿAlī al-Hamadhānī say, “I asked Ibrāhīm ibn Shaybān about al-Ḥallāj, and he answered, ‘Whoever wishes to see the fruits of false pretensions should look at al-Ḥallāj and what became of him.’”

Abū ʿAbd Allāh Ibn Bākūyah narrated: Abū al-Fawāris al-Jawzaqānī told us, from Ibrāhīm ibn Shaybān, who said:

My teacher Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Maghribī greeted ʿAmr ibn ʿUthmān and conversed with him about some issue. During the exchange he remarked, “There is a young man up on Mount Abū Qubays.”

When we left ʿAmr we climbed up to see him. It was the heat of midday. We entered and found him sitting in the courtyard on a rock in the sun, sweat streaming from him onto the stone. As soon as al-Maghribī looked at him, he withdrew, motioning with his hand, “Go back.”

We descended to the mosque, and Abū ʿAbd Allāh said to me, “If you live long enough you will see what befalls this man; in his folly he has seated himself, pretending to exercise patience with Allah.”

We inquired about him and discovered that he was al-Ḥallāj.

Al-Sulamī said: Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Shādhān narrated to us: I heard Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī al-Kattānī say, “Al-Ḥallāj entered Mecca. We strove until we managed to seize his patched cloak, took a louse from it, weighed it, and found it to be half a daniq (1) on account of the severity of his austerities.”