on the day Ahmad ibn Ḥanbal was flogged. He said:

Al-Muʿtaṣim turned toward him and asked, “Do you know this one?”
He answered, “No.”

Again he asked, “Do you know this one?”
He said, “No.”

Then Ahmad looked around; when his eyes fell on Ibn Abī Duʾād he turned his face away, as though he had just seen a monkey.

Al-Muʿtaṣim said, “Do you know this one—meaning ʿAbd al-Raḥmān?”
He replied, “Yes.”

The caliph said, “Say: ‘Allah is the Lord of the Qur’an.’”
Ahmad responded, “The Qur’an is the speech of Allah.”

Ibn Samāʿah and those with him then testified, declaring, “He has fallen into disbelief—kill him, and we will bear the responsibility for his blood.”

My father told me: Abū Jaʿfar ibn Budaynah related to us that Ṣāliḥ ibn Ahmad reported:
“A man who was present told me, ‘I watched him over those three days while they debated and questioned him. He did not commit a single grammatical error, and I never imagined anyone could show such bravery and firmness of heart.’”

Abū Isḥāq—Ibrāhīm ibn Isḥāq al-Shīrajī—narrated to us: Abū Bakr al-Marwazī said,
“Abū ʿAbd Allāh never slipped in his speech. I was informed that when he was examined before the caliph not a single solecism could be charged against him; people related that he kept saying, ‘How can I say what he never said?!’”

Abū Bakr al-Marwazī also said: Ibn Abī Ḥassān the bookseller told me,
“While he was in prison Abū ʿAbd Allāh asked me for Hamzah’s book on Arabic grammar. I brought it to him, and he studied it before the interrogation began.”

Abū ʿAmr—ʿUthmān ibn ʿUmar—told me: Abū Bakr—Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Hārūn—narrated to us, and Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī al-Simsār likewise reported:
“I saw an elderly man come to Abū ʿAbd Allāh while he was ill, and the man began to weep.”