Aḥmad al-Ḥāsib relates: I heard my father say, “The caliph al-Muʿtaḍid dispatched me to India to investigate certain matters for him. A man known as al-Ḥusayn ibn Manṣūr was with me on the ship, and he was pleasant company. When we disembarked I asked him, ‘What brings you here?’
He answered, ‘I have come to learn magic and to summon people to Allah.’

There was an elderly shaykh standing on the roof of a hut. Al-Ḥusayn said to him, ‘Do you have anyone who knows something of magic?’
The shaykh produced a ball of spun yarn, handed one end of it to al-Ḥusayn, hurled the ball into the air where it stretched out into a single strand, then climbed up it and came back down. Turning to al-Ḥusayn he said, ‘Is this the sort of thing you are after?’

Abū al-Qāsim al-Tanūkhī (1) narrates: I heard Aḥmad ibn Yūsuf al-Azraq say, ‘More than one reliable person told me that al-Ḥallāj had sent one of his disciples to the Mountain Region and agreed with him on a ruse he was to perform. The man travelled there and remained for years, displaying asceticism, devoted worship, Qur’an recitation, and fasting. When he was sure he had gained a firm reputation, he announced that he had gone blind, so he was led to the mosque while feigning blindness for months. Next he claimed to be crippled, so he was carried to the mosque. A full year passed, and the people were by then convinced of his blindness and lameness.

“After that,” the man said to them, “I saw in a dream that the Prophet—may blessings and peace be upon him—told me: ‘A servant whose supplication is answered will visit this town; you will be cured at his hands. Seek out every poor traveller who passes through, that perhaps Allah will heal me.’”

People’s hearts became attached to this promised servant. When the appointed time between him and al-Ḥallāj had elapsed, al-Ḥallāj arrived in town, donned a woollen cloak, and secluded himself in the main mosque. They noticed him and informed the ‘blind’ man, who said, ‘Carry me to him!’

When he reached al-Ḥallāj and realised who he was, he said, ‘Servant of Allah, I have seen a dream,’ and he recounted it to him. Al-Ḥallāj replied, ‘Who am I, and what standing do I have?’ Then he began to pray for him, wiped his hand over him—and the man stood up.