Al-Akhfash said:
Thalab told us that al-Asmaʿi remarked, “With Ibn Harmah the gate of poetry was sealed.” (1)

Abu al-Faraj Ibn al-Jawzi records that he, too, died in this same year. (2)

In that year there also passed away:
• al-Jarrāḥ ibn Milīḥ, the father of Wakīʿ ibn al-Jarrāḥ;
• Saʿīd ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jamīl, Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Madanī, who served as judge of Baghdad for seventeen years on behalf of al-Mahdī’s army encampment. Ibn Maʿīn and others judged him trustworthy.

That same year likewise witnessed the death of
Ṣāliḥ ibn Bishr al-Murrī (3), one of the devoted worshippers and ascetics. He wept profusely and preached so movingly that Sufyān al-Thawrī and other scholars would attend his gatherings; Sufyān used to say, “He is a warner to his people.”

Al-Mahdī once summoned him to court. He came riding a donkey and, still mounted, approached the Caliph’s carpet. The Caliph ordered his two sons—the heirs apparent, Mūsā al-Hādī and Hārūn al-Rashīd—to rise and help him dismount, and they hastened to do so.

Turning inward, Ṣāliḥ said, “I am ruined and lost if today, in this place, I flatter and do not declare the truth openly.” He then sat with al-Mahdī and delivered an eloquent admonition that moved the Caliph to tears.

He continued: “Know that the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, will dispute with anyone in his community who opposes him; and whoever has Muḥammad for his adversary will find Allah his adversary. Prepare proofs for your litigation with Allah and with His Messenger that will ensure your salvation, or else surrender yourself to destruction. Know that the slowest of the fallen to rise again is the one struck down by the passion of his innovation. Realize, too, that Allah is Dominant over His servants, and that the firmest of people in their footing are those who hold fast to the Book of Allah and the sunnah of His Messenger.” He spoke at length, and al-Mahdī wept and ordered that these words be entered into the state registers.