Hilal ibn al-Muhassin al-Sabi'

Hilal ibn al-Muhassin al-Sabi', the secretary and historian, son of the historian al-Muhassin ibn Ibrahim and nephew of the famous historian Ghars al-Ni'ma; born in 359, he heard Abu 'Ali al-Farisi and 'Ali ibn 'Isa al-Rummani, and was truthful. He told of his conversion himself: his father al-Muhassin was a Sabian, and Hilal embraced Islam late, after a dream in 399 in which he saw himself making wudu and praying, then a second dream on the Tigris at the Bab al-Bustan landing where he was reproached for delaying — so he washed, went to the shrine, prayed and doubt left him; he formally converted in 403 and the people approved. ²

Fakhr al-Mulk sent him a bundle of clothes and two hundred dinars, which he returned saying "I do not like to mix my act with anything of this world"; he composed the Takmila, a continuation of al-Tabari's history from where it ended to his own days, and had a hand in letters and poetry; he died in Ramadan 448. ²