Al-Khallāl (1) likewise narrates from al-Maymūnī (2) that he once asked Abū ʿAbd Allāh. Al-Maymūnī said: “I asked him, ‘What do you say about someone who claims, “Allah existed while possessing no knowledge”?’ His face changed violently and his anger intensified; then he said to me, ‘Disbeliever!’ He added, ‘Every day my insight into these people grows.’

He (3) also reported that Abū ʿAbd Allāh said: “I have learned (4) that Bishr (5) al-Marīsī used to say, ‘Knowledge is of two kinds: a created knowledge and an uncreated knowledge.’ What, then, is that supposed to be (6)?” I asked, “O Abū ʿAbd Allāh, how can such a thing be?” He replied, “I do not know—could His knowledge in its entirety be partly created and partly uncreated? I do not understand how that could be. That is what Bishr used to say,” and Abū ʿAbd Allāh showed extreme astonishment.

It is also reported (7) from al-Marwadhī who said: Abū ʿAbd Allāh remarked, “I said to Ibn al-Ḥajjām—on the day of the mihna (inquisition)—‘What do you say about the knowledge of Allah?’ He answered, ‘It is created.’ Ibn Rabāḥ then cast a reproachful look at Ibn al-Ḥajjām for how hastily he spoke. I asked Ibn Rabāḥ, ‘What (8) do you (9) say?’ When he expressed dissatisfaction with Ibn al-Ḥajjām’s statement, I told him, ‘You have disbelieved.’ Abū ʿAbd Allāh explained: ‘He is in effect saying that Allah once had no knowledge, and that is disbelief in Allah.’