“He was fair-complexioned, with a reddish tinge … his hair was loose and wavy … and his neck was like a silver ewer …”

Ibn Ḥibbān also narrated it (2117) from him through a third route, with the wording: “He had a large head, was fair-complexioned with a reddish tinge, and had a thick beard …” Aḥmad likewise narrated it (1/96, 116, 127, and 134), and al-Bayhaqī (1/158) narrated part of it. One narration of Aḥmad (1/116–117) states: “He had a large head and wavy hair.”

ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad (1/151) and Ibn Saʿd (1/411) added, through a fourth route from ʿAlī: “He was radiant, broad-foreheaded, and long-lashed.” Both narrated it through Yūsuf ibn Māzin, who reported that a man asked ʿAlī … In one narration of ʿAbd Allāh’s, it reads: “From a man, from ʿAlī …” This man may well have been Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥanafiyyah, for ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAqīl narrated it from Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī, from his father ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, with the same wording, except for the phrase: “radiant and broad-foreheaded.” Ibn Saʿd (1/410) and al-Bayhaqī (1/161) narrated it.

I say: Its chain of transmission is good. It is also possible that he was ʿUmar ibn ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, for Ibn Saʿd narrated it (1/462) through ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar ibn ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, from his father, from his grandfather, who said: It was said to ʿAlī, “O Abū al-Ḥasan, describe the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, for us.” He said: Then he mentioned it, again without the phrase: “radiant and broad-foreheaded.”