Narrated to us by the firmly grounded, upright and trustworthy authority, Majd al-Din Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl ibn ʿUthmān ibn al-Muẓaffar ibn Hibat Allāh ibn ʿAsākir of Damascus—this was read aloud to him while I listened in Shaʿbān 667 AH—who said:
We were informed by the ḥāfiẓ Abū Muḥammad al-Qāsim ibn ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥasan ibn Hibat Allāh ibn ʿAsākir—his text likewise being read aloud—who said:
We were told by Abū al-Durr Yāqūt ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Rūmī, the merchant and client of Ibn al-Bukhārī, from a recitation before him. Zaynab bint Makkī and Ismāʿīl ibn al-ʿAsqalānī also reported to us, both saying:
Ibn Ṭabrazad informed us; the judge Abū Bakr al-Anṣārī, Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn al-Ashqar the broker, Abū Ghālib Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Quraysh, and Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn Dahruj likewise informed us. All of them said: Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Hazar Marda al-Ṣarīfīnī narrated to us—his text was read aloud—saying:
Abū Ṭāhir Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-ʿAbbās al-Mukhalliṣ dictated to us in Shaʿbān 393 AH, saying: Abū al-Qāsim ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad al-Baghawī told us: Shaybān ibn Farrūkh told us: Mubārak ibn Faḍālah told us, from al-Ḥasan, from Anas, who said:
“The Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—used to deliver the Friday sermon beside a wooden post, leaning his back against it. When the congregation grew large he said, ‘Build me a minbar (pulpit) with two steps.’ When he ascended the minbar and began to preach, the post let out a groan.”