Al-Qādī Abū Ya‘lā wrote in Ibtāl al-Ta’wīlāt (Refutation of Interpretations):

Know that Abū Bakr al-Khallāl said: “Bishr ibn Mūsā al-Asadī informed me: ‘I asked Abū ‘Abd Allāh Ahmad ibn Hanbal about Time, but he gave me no answer on the matter.’”

Al-Qādī said: “This apparently indicates that Ahmad withheld judgment on accepting the hadith’s apparent meaning.”

Hanbal said: “I heard Hārūn al-Hammāl say