Kitāb al-Ghayba

(23) Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Saʿīd narrated to us, who said: al-Qāsim ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan ibn Ḥāzim narrated to us, who said: ʿUbayys ibn Hishām narrated to us, from ʿAbdullāh ibn Jablah, from ʿAlī ibn Abī al-Mughīrah, who said: ʿAbdullāh ibn Sharīk al-ʿĀmirī narrated to us, from Bishr ibn Ghālib al-Asadī, who said: Al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī (as) said to me: "O Bishr, what will be the state of Quraysh when the Qāʾim al-Mahdī comes and brings forward five hundred of them and executes them by beheading? Then he brings forward another five hundred and executes them by beheading. Then he brings forward another five hundred and executes them by beheading." Bishr said: "I said to him: 'May Allah set you right, will their number really reach that amount?' Al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī (as) replied: 'Their master (leader) is among them.'" Bishr ibn Ghālib's brother, Bashīr ibn Ghālib, said: "I bear witness that al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī counted six sets for my brother — or he said six exact numbers (the narrations differ on this phrase)."