238 – Khalaf ibn Salim narrated to us; he said: Abū Nuʿaym narrated to us; he said: Ismāʿīl ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Muhājir narrated to us; he said: I heard ʿAbd al-Malik ibn ʿUmayr ⦗147⦘ say: A man from Thaqīf related to me:

“ʿAlī appointed me over ʿUkbarā. I went to visit him and found no doorkeeper standing between us. He was sitting with a cup and a jug of water before him. He then called for a small flask, and I said to myself, ‘He feels safe with me to the point that he is about to bring out precious jewels.’ The flask, however, was sealed. He broke the seal, and inside it was sawīq (roasted barley flour). He poured some into the cup, drank from it, and offered me some to drink.

I could not restrain myself, so I said, ‘O Commander of the Believers, you do this while you are in Iraq, and the food of Iraq is far more abundant than that!’

He replied, ‘I only buy what is enough for me, and I dislike that it should be used up, whereupon something else might be mixed into it. I did not seal it out of miserliness; rather, it is simply to preserve it. Moreover, I dislike allowing anything to enter my stomach except that which is wholesome.’”