until it perched on his hand. Then it kept striking the ground with its beak until blood dripped from it and the bird died.”

He said: “I also saw him speaking one day about love, whereupon the mosque’s lamps clashed together and shattered one another.”

In his chapter on contentment, al-Qushayrī relates a similar account from Ruwaym, the Quran reciter and companion of Sumnūn. He writes: “Ruwaym said, ‘Contentment means that even if Hell were placed at one’s right hand, one would not ask Allah to move it to one’s left.’” This resembles Sumnūn’s words: “So test me however You will.” Yet if he could not patiently endure difficulty passing urine, could he bear having Hell at his right hand?