It is related from Mumshād (1) that he once saw Abū al-Ḥasan al-Ṣāʿigh praying in the open desert during the fiercest midday heat, while an eagle had spread its wings above him, shading him from the scorching sun.

Ibn al-Athīr said: In this same year Abū al-Ḥasan (2) ʿAlī ibn Ismāʿīl al-Ashʿarī, the theologian, originator of the famous school, passed away. He was born in 260 AH and was a descendant of Abū Mūsā al-Ashʿarī.

I say: The sound view is that al-Ashʿarī died in 324 AH, as mentioned earlier (3).

He also said: In this year there died Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf ibn al-Naḍr al-Harawī, the Shāfiʿī jurist (4). He was born in 229 AH and had studied under al-Rabīʿ ibn Sulaymān, the companion of al-Shāfiʿī.

I add: In this year there also died Abū Ḥāmid ibn Bilāl (5); Zakariyyā ibn Aḥmad al-Balkhī (6); ʿAbd al-Ghāfir ibn Salāmah, the ḥadith-master (7); Muḥammad ibn Rāʾiq, the amīr (8); and Shaykh Abū Ṣāliḥ Mufliḥ al-Ḥanbalī, the benefactor of the Abū Ṣāliḥ Mosque outside the Eastern Gate of Damascus—a man endowed with miracles, spiritual states, and lofty stations.

Biography of Abū Ṣāliḥ al-Dimashqī (9), after whom the mosque outside the Eastern Gate of Damascus is named:

Mufliḥ ibn ʿAbd Allāh, Abū Ṣāliḥ the devotee, kept the company of Shaykh Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Sayyid Ḥamdawayh al-Dimashqī, refined his manners under him, and was narrated about by al-Muwaḥḥid ibn Isḥāq ibn al-Barrī, Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn al-Qujjah—the mosque’s caretaker—and Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Dāwūd al-Dīnawarī al-Duqqī.

The ḥadith-master Ibn ʿAsākir relates, through the chain of al-Duqqī, from Shaykh Abū Ṣāliḥ, who said:

“I was wandering about Mount al-Lukkām in search of ascetics. I passed by a man sitting on a rock, his head bowed. I said to him, ‘What are you doing here?’ He replied, ‘I am looking…’’