I met `Abdullah b. `Abbas and said to him: O cousin of the Messenger of Allah! I have come to you to ask you about `Ali b. Abi Talib and the people’s differing over him. So, Ibn `Abbas said: O Ibn Jubayr! You have come to me to ask me about the best of the creation in the Nation after Muhammad the prophet of Allah. You have come to me to ask me about a man who received three thousand virtues in one night, and that is the Night of al-Qurba (when three thousand angels greeted `Ali). O Ibn Jubayr! You have come to me to ask me about the deputy of the Messenger of Allah (s) and his vizier, his vicegerent (khalifa), and the master of his Pond, his Banner, and his intercession. By Him in whose hand is the soul of Ibn `Abbas! Had the oceans of this world been ink, and had its trees been pens, and had its people been scribes, and they wrote the qualities and virtues of `Ali b. Abi Talib (as) from the day Allah created this world until the day He ends it, they would not be able to exhaust all of what Allah has given him.