Description of Ali bin Abi Talib (may Allah be pleased with him)

Abu Ishaq said: I saw Ali (may Allah be pleased with him). He said: My father said to me: "O Amr! Look at the Commander of the Faithful." So I looked at him and saw that his beard was not dyed, and he had a large head.

Abu Ishaq said: I saw Ali (may Allah be pleased with him); his head and beard were white, and he was wearing a lower garment and a cloak.

Abu Ishaq said: I saw Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) on the pulpit; his head and beard were white.

Abu Ishaq (may Allah have mercy on him) said: I went out with my father for the Friday prayer, and I was a boy at the time. When Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) came out and ascended the pulpit, my father said to me: "O Amr! Stand up and look at the Commander of the Faithful." The narrator said: So I stood up, and there he was, standing on the pulpit; his beard and head were white, and he was wearing a lower garment and a cloak, with no shirt on him. The narrator said: I did not see him sit on the pulpit until he came down from it. We asked Abu Ishaq: "Did he recite the qunut?" He said: "No."

It is narrated from Abu Ishaq (may Allah have mercy on him) that when Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) married Fatimah (may Allah be pleased with her), she said to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): "You have married me to a man with weak eyesight and a large belly." So the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "I have married you to the one who was the first of my Companions to accept Islam, the most knowledgeable of them, and the most forbearing of them."

Al-Sha'bi said: I saw Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) on the pulpit; his beard was white and it had filled the space between his two shoulders. Yahya bin Sa'id added in his narration: On his head there were sparse, light hairs.

Al-Waqidi said: It is said that Ali bin Abi Talib (may Allah be pleased with him) was wheat-complexioned, of medium height, stout, broad-shouldered, long-bearded, bald, large-bellied, with large eyes, and with a white head and beard.

Shu'bah (may Allah have mercy on him) said: I asked Abu Ishaq: "Are you older than al-Sha'bi?" He said to me: "Al-Sha'bi is older than me by one or two years." He said: Abu Ishaq had seen Ali (may Allah be pleased with him), and he used to describe him to us as having a large belly and being bald at the front of the head. Shu'bah said: Abu Ishaq was older than Abu al-Bakhtari, and Abu al-Bakhtari did not reach the time of Ali, nor did he see him.

Abu al-Tufayl said: I mentioned to Ibn Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) a statement of Ali (may Allah be pleased with him), and he said: "Have you not seen his head? It was like a basin (shining), and around it there was only (hair) like a fringe."

Abu Raja' al-Utaridi said: I saw Ali (may Allah be pleased with him); he was stout and bald, as though there were a sheepskin (placed) at his side.