And ʿUbayd Allah ibn Muhammad reports: ʿUthmān ibn Aḥmad told us; Ḥanbal narrated; Abū Ẓafar narrated; Jaʿfar ibn Sulaymān narrated from ʿAmr ibn Dīnār, the steward of the household of al-Zubayr, who said:

“I was travelling with Sālim ibn ʿAbd Allah. When we passed the spring of al-Ruwaytha we visited its cemetery, and I noticed Sālim’s face change colour; he began to supplicate and said, ‘My father told me that he once came by this water. He said: When I reached this graveyard, suddenly a man emerged from one of its graves with fire—or a chain of fire—blazing around his neck. Then another man came out of the grave holding the chain, and in his hand was a whip of fire. The first man cried out, “Servant of Allah, pour water over me twice—or three times!” When my mount caught sight of him it bolted, and I feared she would throw me as I struggled to restrain her. I wondered, “Is he calling me because he knows me by sight, or is this merely a manner of address?”

‘The man holding the chain and the whip said, “Servant of Allah, for Allah’s sake, do not pour water over him three times, for he is an unbeliever.” Then he struck the man, dragged him, and forced him back into the grave.’”