Ibn Bākūyah said: I heard al-Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad al-Madhārī say, “I heard Abū Yaʿqūb al-Nahrajūrī say: When al-Ḥusayn ibn Manṣūr (al-Hallāj) entered Mecca he sat in the mosque courtyard and never left his spot except to perform purification or to circumambulate the Kaʿba. He was indifferent to sun and rain. Each evening a jug of water and a round loaf were brought to him; he would bite the loaf four times, once on each side, and then drink.”

Muslim ibn Muḥammad al-Qaysī informed us in writing; al-Kindī informed us; Ibn Zurayq informed us; Abū Bakr al-Khaṭīb informed us; Muḥammad ibn Abī l-Ḥasan al-Sāḥilī related to me, from Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Nasawī: I heard Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn the ḥāfiẓ; I heard Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad al-Wāʿiẓ say: Abū l-Qāsim al-Rāzī said: Abū Bakr ibn Mumshādh said, “A man arrived in Dīnawar carrying a saddle-bag. When they searched it they found a letter of al-Hallāj headed: ‘From the All-Merciful, the Compassionate, to So-and-so son of So-and-so.’”

He was sent on to Baghdad, brought in, and the letter was put before him. He said, “This is my handwriting; I wrote it.”

They said, “You used to claim prophethood—have you now begun to claim divinity?”

He replied, “No. Rather, this is ʿayn al-jamʿ (the very essence of union) in our doctrine. Who is the writer but God and I? The hand is only an instrument.”

He was asked, “Do you have anyone with you?”

He said, “Yes: Ibn ʿAṭāʾ, Abū Muḥammad al-Jarīrī, and al-Shiblī.”

Abū Muḥammad al-Jarīrī was brought and questioned; he said, “This man is a disbeliever—whoever says such a thing must be put to death.”

Al-Shiblī was asked and said, “Whoever says this must be restrained.”

Ibn ʿAṭāʾ was questioned, and he agreed with al-Hallāj; that was the cause of his execution.

I (the author) say: As for Abū al-ʿAbbās ibn ʿAṭāʾ—he was not killed. When the vizier questioned him he spoke to him harshly, saying, “What concern is this of yours? You are preoccupied with oppressing people.” So the vizier had him disciplined.

Al-Sulamī said: Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Shādhān narrated to us: At the time al-Hallāj was brought for execution the vizier was Ḥāmid ibn al-ʿAbbās. He ordered him to write down his creed, so al-Hallāj wrote it. The vizier presented it to the jurists of Baghdad, and they rejected it. Hāmid was told, “Ibn ʿAṭāʾ endorses his statement,” so he ordered