The Life Of Ibn Hanbal by Ibn Al-Jawzi

[Muḥammad ibn Muslim:] We were too much in awe of Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal to disagree with him or argue with him about anything. 36.1

This was because of how imposing he was, and how intimidating the devotion to Islam he had been blessed with.194

[Al-Marrūdhī:] Al-Ḥasan ibn Aḥmad, the superintendent of the bridge, who lived in my neighborhood, told me, “I’ve met Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm, and So-and-So, and Soand- So”—all of them men of authority—“but I never saw anyone as overpowering as Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal. I once went to talk to him about something, and the moment I saw him, I shuddered.” 36.2

Al-Kalbī, the chief of intelligence, once came to see him at night, but he and his men were too intimidated to knock on his door and so knocked on his uncle’s door instead. Aḥmad said that he heard them knocking and answered.

[ʿAbdūs:] Aḥmad once saw me laugh. I’m still embarrassed about it. 36.3

[Al-Qāsim ibn Sallām:] I’ve sat with Abū Yūsuf, Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan, Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd, and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mahdī, and I was never as intimidated as I was when I sat with Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal. When he was in prison, I went to visit him.

Someone asked me a question but with Aḥmad there I was afraid to answer it. 36.4

Ibn Makram added: “I told Yaʿqūb ibn Shaybah this story, and he said, ‘He was probably afraid to make a mistake with Aḥmad there.’”