When al-Shiblī once saw a man riding by, the onlookers remarked, “That is the emir’s jester.” Al-Shiblī stepped forward, kissed the man’s thigh, whereupon the rider dismounted and said, “Master, perhaps you have not recognized me!” Al-Shiblī answered, “Indeed I have: you are the one who consumes this world in exchange for something no more than this world itself, and you are better than the one who consumes the world by means of religion.” (1)

After that he kept company with the poor and the shaykhs, and in time became one of the leaders of the Sufis.

Al-Junayd said, “Al-Shiblī is the crown of this company.”

Al-Khaṭīb relates: ʿAlī ibn Maḥmūd al-Zawzanī told us, “I heard ʿAlī ibn al-Muthannā al-Tamīmī say: I entered al-Shiblī’s house while he was in a state of ecstatic agitation, chanting:

He whose habit is nearness
cannot endure your distance;
He whom love has enslaved
cannot withstand your veil.
If the eye fails to behold you,
the heart may yet perceive you.

Many remarkable states and miracles have been attributed to him. Ibn ʿAsākir reports:

I once asked a monk, “For whom have you confined yourself?”
He replied, “For the Messiah.”
I said, “Why have you singled him out for worship instead of Allah?”
He answered, “Because he fasted forty days without eating or drinking.”
I responded, “Count them against me.” So I remained beneath his cell for forty days, eating and drinking nothing. He then came down and asked, “What is your religion?” I said, “I am Muhammadan.” He embraced Islam; I brought him to Damascus, the people gathered money for him, and I left him with the Sufis.

He also said: We were captured once, and the bandits laid their booty before their chief. They ate whatever sugar and almonds were in it, but he refrained. I asked, “Why do you not eat with your companions?” He replied, “I am fasting.” I exclaimed, “You kill men and seize their property while fasting!” He said, “Shaykh, leave room for reconciliation.” Some time later I saw him clinging to the curtains of the Kaʿbah, shriveled like an old waterskin from worship. I asked, “Are you that same man?” He answered, “It was that fast that brought me here.” (2)(3)

We have already mentioned (4) that he was among those who were confused about the affair of al-Ḥallāj; sayings were attributed to him without his reflecting on their implications, whereas al-Ḥallāj was bent on heresy and ittiḥād (pantheistic union).

When death approached him, he said to his servant, “I owe someone one dirham taken unjustly. I have given thousands in charity on his behalf, yet nothing weighs on my heart more than that.” He then ordered the servant to give him wuḍūʾ, which he did, omitting to run his fingers through the beard. [He raised