He was also a native of Lakhnau. He used to live secluded in a cave in the forest, in the banks of the river Kūdī,* remote from any habitation and so concealed that nobody could find the way thither. He broke his fast (no oftener than) once in every week, after the Friday prayers. In his house there was a decrepit old man who used to bring to him for his meal a fragment of dry bread and some of the fruit of a plantain tree, which (the Shaikh) had planted with his own hand. If anyone had em­barked on an arduous enterprise he would come at that appointed time* and sit at the door of the Shaikh's cell, but the Shaikh would never speak.*

When Ḥusain Khān was governor of Lakhnau I went with a friend named ‘Abdu-'r-Rahmān, who was Ḥusain Khān's deputy, to endeavour to obtain an interview with the Shaikh. We found him nothing but skin, as it were, stretched over bones, and great snakes darted their heads out of their holes both within and without the cave. One of those present was terrified and would have struck at them with his staff, but the Shaikh forbad him by a sign, and said, “What have they taken from you?”

When we asked the little old man concerning him he told us that he had dwelt in that desolate spot for more than thirty years and that the snakes had become quite tame from being with him and never injured anybody. When we were bidding him farewell he made a sign to all of those present to take some fragments of bread, several days old, and some dried fruit, which he had before him, and my friend offered him a piece of gold which he would not accept. These two* holy men died very shortly after that time.