—roll his eyes toward me, and his thoughts would boil over with delusion. When we stepped outside he asked, “So, have you believed?”

I replied, “I disbelieve your claim now more than ever. Is that man, in your eyes, on a par with the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him? Then why does he not at least rid himself of being cross-eyed?”

He retorted, “You simpleton! As if he were truly cross-eyed—he is merely roaming with his gaze through the heavenly realm.”

Abu ʿAlī al-Tanūkhī said: Abu’l-ʿAbbās the physician—one of the Muslim doctors I have met—informed me that Ḥayy Nūr, the son of al-Hallaj, is living in Tustar. He supposedly snatches silver dirhams out of thin air, gathers them up, and calls them “the dirhams of power.” They brought some of those coins to one of their assemblies, laid them out, and made the attendees bear witness that he had plucked them from the sky. With this trick they entice strangers whom they invite, claiming that Ḥayy Nūr’s rank is too exalted for him to be tested at every turn. When the coins were placed in a kerchief, I turned them over and found among them one counterfeit dirham. I asked, “Are all these the dirhams of power?”

They said, “Yes.”

I showed them the fake coin; the gathering broke up and we departed. Ḥayy Nūr had already ensnared a Daylamī commander who ruled Tustar, then multiplied his frigid impostures until the commander’s reputation was ruined on his account, so he killed him.

Among those frigid tricks was that he produced a sack and told the commander, “Whenever you find yourself in trouble, I shall draw from this sack a thousand Turkish soldiers, fully armed and supplied.” The commander’s estimation of him collapsed and he dismissed him. After some time Ḥayy Nūr returned and said, “I can restore the severed hand of the ruler Aḥmad ibn Būyah to full health; admit me to him.” The commander shouted, “I would rather cut off your hand; if you can re-attach it, I will take you to him.” Alarmed, he recoiled, whereupon the commander struck him with something that proved fatal, then had his corpse secretly removed and drowned.

ʿAlī ibn Maḥmūd al-Zawzanī said: I heard Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Thawābah say: Zayd al-Qaṣrī related to me, “I was in Jerusalem when al-Hallaj entered. That day the lamp of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher was being lit with balsam oil, and the mendicants went up to him asking him for …” ⦗1⦘