5. Muhammad ibn Yahya has narrated from Muhammad ibn Ahmad from Ali ibn al-Rayyan from Ahmad ibn abu Khalaf Mawla’ of abu al-Hassan , whom he (the Imam) had bought along with his parents and brother then set them free but Ahmad made a contract with him (the Imam) and became his agent. He has said the following:

“Women of abu al-Hassan , when burning incense first took the date-stone of Sayhaniy (a certain kind of date of al-Madinah) date, clean of date fruit or sweetness and peel, then placed it on the fire before the incense. When the date-stones smoked the minimum they threw away the date-stones and burnt the incense. They said, ‘It clings with better fragrance and nicer incense’ and they instructed with this method.”