Al-Marwazī said:

“I was told by Yaʿqūb the Persian, who said: I heard ʿĪsā al-Fattāḥ relate that Abu ʿAbd Allāh said to me, ‘Abū Mūsā, never in all that I endured from those people did anything weigh on me more than the way the flogger would glance about and then suddenly lunge at me.’ ”

He (al-Marwazī) also said:

“I heard al-Fallās say: I heard ʿĪsā al-Fattāḥ relate that Abu ʿAbd Allāh told me—Abū Isḥāq said, ‘I have never seen anyone born of woman braver than this man.’ ”

Al-Marwazī continued:

“I heard ʿĪsā al-Jallāʾ say: A man saw in a dream that a caller was reciting while a group stood off to one side: ‘But if these disbelieve in it…’ (Qurʾān 6:89), and he pointed with his hand toward Ibn Abī Duʾād and his followers; then he recited, ‘…We have entrusted it to a people who do not disbelieve in it’ (6:89)—meaning Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal and his companions.”

Al-Marwazī said further:

“I was informed by Ziyād ibn Abī Bādūyah al-Qaṣrī, who said: I heard al-Ḥammānī say: I saw the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—in a dream. He came and grasped my doorposts and announced, ‘The saved have been saved and the doomed have perished.’ I asked, ‘O Messenger of Allah—may my father and mother be ransomed for you—who are the saved?’ He replied, ‘Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal and his companions.’ ”

Al-Marwazī also said:

“It reached me that a woman was seen in a dream and the hair at her temples had turned gray. She was asked, ‘What caused this grayness?’ She answered, ‘When Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal was beaten, Hell let out a single sigh and every one of us turned gray.’ ”

Abū Isḥāq al-Shīrajī narrated to us, saying: Al-Marwazī narrated to us; he said: Abū ʿUmar al-Mukharrimī narrated to us:

“I was with Saʿīd ibn Manṣūr while we were performing ṭawāf, when I heard a voice announce, ‘Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal was flogged today.’”