From al-Mu'allī ibn Uwb, he said: I heard al-Ma'mun say
I have never seen anyone more dutiful to his father than al-Fadl ibn Yahya al-Barmaki.
His dutifulness toward his father reached such a degree that Yahya would not perform ritual ablution except with hot water.
They were together in prison, and the jailer prevented them from bringing in firewood on a cold night.
Al-Fadl rose when Yahya took his sleeping mat to a vessel in the prison.
So he filled it with water and placed it nearer to the lamp, and he did not cease standing while it was in his hand until morning came.
And another narrator, not al-Ma'mun, reported that the jailer noticed his staying close by the lamp in heating the water.
So he prevented them from having a light on the following night, and so al-Fadl reached toward the flask full of water.
So he took it with him in his bed and pressed it against his entrails until it became morning and the water had cooled.
