—advising them on the doctrines they were to preach, instructing them how to move people from one spiritual state to another and from one rank to the next, and telling them to address every group according to its intellect and according to how ready and willing it was to comply. He replied in cryptic language that no one understood except the writer and the addressee. In some letters there was even a sketch in which the name of Allah appeared in a twisted form, and inside that twisting was written: “ʿAlī (1) …,” until he continued, saying:

“I attended Hamid’s session when a casket was brought from the house of al-Qunnaʾī. In it was a dried-out pot, glass flasks containing something that looked like mercury, and some dry lumps. The vizier was astonished at those pots and placed them in a sealed casket. Al-Simmarī was questioned, but he prevaricated; when they pressed him, he said that it was al-Hallāj’s excrement, that it was a cure, and that what was in the flasks was his urine.

“Al-Simmarī then said to me, ‘Eat some of these dried pieces and see how your heart will feel toward al-Hallāj.’

“Hamid then brought al-Hallāj in and asked, ‘What is in this casket?’

“He replied, ‘I do not know.’(2)

“Then Hamid’s servant, who used to wait upon al-Hallāj, came and reported that he had once entered carrying a tray. He said, ‘I found the place filled from ceiling to floor; the sight terrified me, I dropped the tray from my hand, and I was taken with a fever.’

“Ibn Zanjī said: Notebooks were also taken from the houses of al-Hallāj’s companions. Hamid ordered me to read them while the judge Abū ʿUmar was present, together with the judge Abū al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Ashnānī. Among the contents was the following: if a person wishes to perform the pilgrimage, he should set aside a room in his house, circumambulate it during the days of the season, then gather thirty orphans, clothe each of them in a shirt, prepare good food for them, feed them, serve them, clothe them again, and give each one seven dirhams—or three. If he does that, it will count for him as the hajj.

“When that passage was read, the judge Abū ʿUmar turned to al-Hallāj and asked, ‘Where did you get this?’ He replied, ‘From …’