Abu Jaʿfar also related to me: Yahya ibn Ayyub told me that he heard Abu Nuʿaym al-Balkhi say: “A man from Marw had once been a close companion of Jahm, but later he severed ties with him and kept his distance. People asked him, ‘Why have you shunned him?’ He replied, ‘What came from him was intolerable.

One day I was reciting a certain verse—Yahya could not recall which—and he remarked, ‘How witty Muhammad was!’ I overlooked it. Then I recited Surah Ta-Ha, and when I reached, ‘The Most Merciful rose over the Throne’ (Q. 20:5), he said, ‘By Allah, if I could find a way to scrape that out, I would erase it from the muṣḥaf.’ I still bore it.

After that I recited Surah al-Qasas; when he came to the passage about Moses he exclaimed, ‘What is this? He mentions the story in one place without completing it, then brings it up here again and still leaves it unfinished!’ He then hurled the muṣḥaf off his lap with his feet, so I leapt at him.”