bricks?” They told him, so he made bricks alongside them. He would eat from the work of his own hands, and when the time for prayer came, he would rise to pray. The workers reported this to their landowner: “There is a man among us who does such and such.” He sent for him, but he refused to come three times. Then he came, riding slowly on his mount. When the man saw him, he fled, but the landowner pursued and caught up with him. He said: “Wait for me so that I may speak with you.” So he stopped, and the man spoke with him. He told him his story, and when he told him that he had been a king and had fled out of fear of his Lord, he said: “I think that I shall join you.” He replied: “Then follow me.” So they worshipped Allah until they died at Ramlah in Egypt. ʿAbd Allāh said: “Had I been there, I would have found their grave by means of the description that the Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—gave us.”

Al-Bazzār recorded it in his Musnad (4/267/3689) through ʿAmr ibn Abī Qays, from Simāk—meaning Ibn Ḥarb—from al-Qāsim ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, from his father, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd, from the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—... He said: “We know of no one who narrated it from Simāk, from al-Qāsim, except ʿAmr. Al-Masʿūdī narrated it from Simāk, from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, from his father, without mentioning al-Qāsim.”

I say: Al-Masʿūdī’s narration was recorded by Aḥmad (1/451) and Abū Yaʿlā (9/261/5383), through Yazīd ibn Hārūn: “Al-Masʿūdī informed us, from Simāk ibn Ḥarb, from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAbd Allāh, from Ibn Masʿūd,” who said: then he mentioned it. Qays ibn al-Rabīʿ also corroborated them, narrating it from Simāk ibn Ḥarb in the same manner, likewise omitting al-Qāsim from his chain of transmission. Al-Ṭabarānī recorded it in al-Muʿjam al-Kabīr (10/216/10370) and also in al-Awsaṭ (2/112/1/6743), and said: “No one narrated it from Simāk except Qays ibn al-Rabīʿ!”