Abu ʿUmar ibn Ḥayyūyah reported: Abu ʿAbd Allah al-Nūbakhtī told us, saying, “It is related that Abu ʿAlī said:
I never wearied of life, but I relied upon their oaths, and so my right hand was cut off. (1)
I did all that lay within my power to safeguard their pledges, yet my right hand was severed.
I bartered my faith to them for the sake of their world, only for them to deny me their world after my faith was gone.
There is no sweetness in living once the right hand is lost—O my life, my right hand is gone, so leave me!” (2)

Abu ʿAlī al-Tanūkhī said: al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Ḥasan al-Wāthiqī narrated to us:
“I was constantly seeing Jaʿfar ibn Warqāʾ (3) submit large numbers of petitions to Ibn Muqla during his vizierate—both in his crowded public audiences and in private. In a single day he might present more than a hundred slips.
One day, in a quiet sitting, he brought him a great many, and Ibn Muqla grew impatient and said, ‘How much more of this, Abū Muḥammad?’
Jaʿfar replied, ‘At your door stand the widow, the helpless, the wayfarer, the poor—those who cannot reach you.
May Allah aid the vizier; if any request in these papers is for me personally, then tear it up.
You are the treasury of this world, and we are merely the roads that lead to you. When people petition us, we petition you; if that burdens you, order us to present nothing, and we shall inform the people how little influence we have with you, so they will excuse us.’
Ibn Muqla answered, ‘That is not what I intended. I only meant that these many petitions could be divided between two sessions.
Had every one of them been your own request, I would still have granted them.’ Whereupon Jaʿfar kissed his hand. (4)

Al-Wāthiqī the chamberlain said: ‘When Ibn Muqla assumed office, the fruit that reached him…’