- ʿAbd Allah narrated to us—Salamah ibn Shabīb mentioned it—Sahl ibn ʿĀṣim related, ʿAbdah ibn Sulaymān related, Makhlad ibn al-Ḥusayn, from Hishām ibn Ḥassān, from Maymūn ibn Mihrān, who said:
An elderly man used to come into our mosque wrapped in a cloak of his. One day he approached me and asked, “How much did you pay for your shirt?” I replied, “Such-and-such.” He asked, “And your turban?” I said, “Such-and-such.” He asked, “And your mantle?” I answered, “Such-and-such.” He then said, “So your outfit has cost all this, and yet you stand before the people narrating to them?”
Maymūn continues: His words lodged in my heart, so I said to a partner of mine, “Gather up our money.” On the following Friday that same elder passed by me and asked, “Whose money is this?” I said, “Mine.” He sat down beside me and said, “Perhaps you have done some good, but by Allah, I would not wish to have all of your good deeds in exchange for having this money spend the night in my house.”
Later the man in the cloak resolved to set out for Bayt al-Maqdis (Jerusalem). I asked him to accept some travel expenses from me, but he refused. I then asked him to accept the hire of a mount, but he refused. We questioned the caravans about him, yet no one could tell us anything—until another caravan arrived. We asked them about him and they said, “As for the man himself, we do not know him; but your chosen companion—the one with the cloak—did pass by us. A wild beast had blocked the road and the travelers, while the man with the cloak walked straight on. We shouted, ‘Servant of Allah, do you not see the beast in the road?’ He did not answer, and the beast made no move; all we saw was his cloak brush against the animal as he passed by, and he kept on walking.”