Narrations about him were given by Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh, Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥasan, and Manṣūr ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Iṣfahānī.

Al-Sulamī said: “He used to weave mats from palm fronds with his sound hand; no one could tell how he did it. He possessed manifest signs and saintly miracles: wild beasts would come to him and grow tame in his company.”

Abū al-Qāsim al-Qushayrī remarked: “He was a man of great stature, endowed with miracles and keen spiritual discernment.”

It is reported that the reason his hand was amputated—after he had been accused of a crime from which he was later exonerated—was that he once longed for some zaʿrūr (hawthorn berries). He broke off a branch, even though he had covenanted with God never to reach for anything out of personal desire. Remembering his pledge, he threw the branch away and thereafter would say, “A hand that severed a limb has itself been severed.”

He died in 347 AH; others say in 349 AH. Ibn ʿAsākir mentions him at length.

Abū Dharr al-Harawī related from ʿĪsā ibn Abī al-Khayr that he said: “My father had been a slave and was set free. He used to gather firewood in Alexandria with his own hand, then took up residence on the frontier of Tarsus, where he fought in jihad with sword and shield (1). Later he was captured together with a band of thieves after spending the night with them in a cave, and his hand was cut off.”

(1) A small, round shield.

10 – Al-Māsarjisī, Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn al-Muʾammal ibn al-Ḥasan*
The imam and head of Nishapur, Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn al-Muʾammal ibn al-Ḥasan.