An example is their claim that al-Hasan kept company with 'Alī. Yet the experts agree that al-Hasan al-Basrī neither met 'Alī nor learned anything from him. Rather, he learned from 'Alī’s companions, such as al-Ahnaf ibn Qays, Qays ibn Mu'ādh, and others.

The same applies to their accounts that al-Shāfi'ī and Ahmad met Shaybān the shepherd and asked him about the prostrations of forgetfulness. The experts likewise agree that al-Shāfi'ī and Ahmad never met Shaybān the shepherd; indeed, they did not even live in his time.

In Haqā'iq al-Tafsīr (The Realities of Quranic Exegesis), Abū 'Abd al-Rahmān relates sayings attributed to Ja'far ibn Muhammad and others which the experts know were falsely attributed to Ja'far ibn Muhammad. More lies have been attributed to Ja'far than to anyone else, for Allah had distinguished him with knowledge and religious devotion. He, his father Abū Ja'far, and his grandfather 'Alī ibn al-Husayn were among the foremost imams in knowledge and religious devotion. No one like Ja'far appeared among the Prophet’s household after him.

Consequently, many heretics and religious innovators began attributing their own doctrines to him. Even the authors of Rasā'il Ikhwān al-Safā (The Epistles of the Brethren of Purity) attribute these epistles to him. Yet they were composed more than two hundred years after his death, when the doctrine of the Ismā'īlī 'Ubaydids, who built Cairo, emerged. They were composed according to their doctrine, which they pieced together from the teachings of the Greek philosophers, the Persian Magians, and the Shī'a within the Muslim community. Hence the scholars said:

“Their doctrine is outwardly Rāfidism, but inwardly pure unbelief.”