1301 – ʿAbd Allah narrated to us; ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAbd al-Rahman al-Samarkandi narrated to us; Yahya ibn Yahya al-Naysaburi al-Khurasani read to us from his own book. My father added, “He was trustworthy—indeed, more than trustworthy—and my father spoke well of him.” Hammad ibn Zayd then narrated to us, from Zurayq ibn Rudayh, from Salamah ibn Mansur, who said:

“My father purchased a young slave who had belonged to al-Aḥnaf; he later set the boy free. I came to know him when he was an elderly man, and he would tell us that most of al-Aḥnaf’s nightly prayer was devoted to supplication. Al-Aḥnaf would place the lamp close to himself, put his finger upon it, and say, ‘Feel this, O Aḥnaf! What drove you to do what you did ⦗191⦘ on such-and-such a day?’—referring to such-and-such a deed.”