Muhammad ibn Yahya al-Razi said: “I heard ‘Amr ibn ‘Uthman cursing al-Hallaj and saying, ‘If I had the power over him, I would kill him with my own hand.’ I asked, ‘What fault does the shaykh find with him?’ He replied, ‘I recited a verse from the Book of Allah and he said, “I can compose the like of it.”’

Abu Ya‘qub al-Aqta‘ said: “I married my daughter to al-Husayn ibn Mansur because I was impressed by the soundness of his conduct and his devotion. Yet after only a short while it became clear to me that he was a sorcerer, a trickster—an unbeliever.”

Abu Ya‘qub al-Nu‘mani said: “I heard Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Dawud, the jurist, say, ‘If what Allah sent down to His Prophet is the truth, then what al-Hallaj says is false.’ He was extremely severe toward him.”

Al-Sulami: I heard ‘Ali ibn Sa‘id al-Wasiti in Kufa say, “No one set himself against al-Hallaj and urged the authorities to execute him as relentlessly as Ibn Dawud did.”

It has reached me that when al-Hallaj was led out to be killed, the face of Hamid ibn al-‘Abbas changed color. One of the jurists said to him, “Do not doubt, O Minister; if what Muhammad brought is true, then what this man says is false.”

Al-Sulami: I heard al-Husayn ibn Yahya; I heard Ja‘far al-Khuldi, and he was asked about al-Hallaj. He said, “I knew him when he was still young; he and al-Fuwati used to accompany ‘Amr al-Makki, who earned his living by ginning cotton.”

Al-Sulami: I heard Ja‘far ibn Ahmad say: I heard Abu Bakr ibn Abi Sa‘dan say, “Al-Hallaj is a pretender and a charlatan.”

Al-Sulami said: It has come to me that he once stood before al-Junayd and declared, “I am the Truth.” Al-Junayd replied, “Rather, you are by the Truth—see what piece of timber you are rotting!”

Al-Sulami: I heard Abu Bakr ibn Ghalib say: I heard some of our companions—