Abu ʿAbd al-Raḥmān said: “I heard ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAlī relate: I heard ʿĪsā al-Qaṣṣār say: The last words al-Ḥallāj spoke when he was slain were: ḥasbu al-wājid⦗1⦘ ifrādu al-wāḥid—‘It suffices the ecstatic to single out the One.’ None of the shaykhs who heard this utterance failed to be moved by it, and all of them deemed his words admirable⦗2⦘.

Al-Sulamī said: I heard Abū Bakr al-Bajalī⦗3⦘ say: I heard Abū al-Fātik al-Baghdādī—who was a companion of al-Ḥallāj—say: Three nights after al-Ḥallāj was killed I dreamt that I was standing before my Lord—exalted is He—and I asked, ‘My Lord, what has become of Ḥusayn ibn Manṣūr?’ He answered, ‘I unveiled for him a certain meaning; he then summoned the creation to himself, so I visited upon him what you have seen.’⦗4⦘

Others maintained: Rather, he was seized at that moment⦗5⦘ by intense distress and wept profusely; Allah knows best.

Al-Khaṭīb said: ʿUbayd Allāh⦗6⦘ ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿUthmān al-Ṣayrafī narrated to us: Abū ʿUmar ibn Ḥayyūyah told us: When Ḥusayn⦗7⦘ al-Ḥallāj was brought out to be executed, I went along with the crowd, pushing forward until I caught sight of him⦗8⦘. He said to his companions, ‘Let not this alarm you⦗9⦘, for I shall return to you after thirty days.’ He was then put to death⦗10⦘.

Al-Khaṭīb also records that while he was being beaten he said to Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Ṣamad, the chief of police, ‘Summon me to you, for I have advice equal in worth to the conquest of Constantinople.’ The latter replied, ‘I have already been told that you would say something of this sort, but there is no way to spare you the beating.’ His hands and feet were then severed, his head was cut off, his body was burned, and the ashes were cast into the Tigris. The head was displayed for two days on the bridge in Baghdad, then carried to Khurasan and paraded around those regions⦗11⦘. Meanwhile his followers kept assuring themselves that he would return to them after forty days⦗12⦘.