the Sunan of al-Tirmidhi (p. 39); yet the narration is found in neither source, and it seems he made the attribution from memory.
– Most of the passages in the section “Sayings of ʿAbd Allah ibn Masʿūd” (pp. 211–218) are taken from Kitāb al-Zuhd by Imām Aḥmad and from Ḥilyat al-Awliyāʾ by Abū Nuʿaym, as the marginal sourcing notes make clear.

These are some of the works upon which he drew, but the dominant character of the book is that of personal reflections and contemplative gleanings—an artful gathering of insightful benefits and subtle points. This is what distinguishes it from the author’s other writings and what lends it particular importance.

Description of the manuscript
As noted earlier, only a single copy of the book is extant. It is preserved within the composite volume al-Kawākib al-Darārī (vol. 39), from folio 145 to folio 200, in the Ẓāhiriyyah Library in Damascus under shelf-number ⦗567⦘. The scribe of the volume, Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad ibn Maḥmūd ibn Badr al-Ḥanbalī, copied it in a clear naskh hand in the year 827 AH. The handwriting is legible and slips are rare. Each page contains 28 lines, and the text has been collated and corrected, as indicated by the emendations in the margins and the dotted circles within the lines. The manuscript also carries statements such as “collated against the exemplar” and similar notes, along with the seal of the ʿUmariyyah Madrasa collections.

The same volume includes several treatises by Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah, some of which have been printed in Majmūʿ al-Fatāwā and others in different collections. Ibn ʿUrwah opens Ibn al-Qayyim’s al-Fawāʾid with the words: “Assorted benefits and fine points … drawn from the discourse of the eminent shaykh … Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah …,” a phrase that was quoted in full above.