1913 – ʿAbd Allah narrated to us; Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Dawraqi narrated to me; al-Haytham ibn Muʿawiyah narrated to us; a certain shaykh told me, saying:

A number of devotees from Kufa gathered together and said, “Let us travel down to Basra and observe how its people worship.” Some of them said to the others, “Instead, let us go to Farqad al-Sinji.” They went in to see him, and he spoke with them for a while. Then they said, “Abu Yaʿqub, the lunch!”

He replied, “Indeed. I only prolonged my talk so that you would become hungry and eat what I have. Lower that basket.” They lowered it and brought out from it pieces of coarse black barley bread. They said, “Salt, Abu Yaʿqub—salt!” He said, “We already put salt in the dough once; do not burden me to go and fetch more for you.”