Islamic
hagiography contains numerous widespread traditions and anecdotes relating to Hasan. The hagiographic scholar John Renard summarizes the narrative thus: "Hasan once visited the
Byzantine Emperor's court, and the
vizier invited him to travel with him into the desert. There Hasan saw a lavish tent, to which came in succession a large army, four hundred scholars, elders, and four hundred beautiful servant maids. The vizier explained that each year since the Emperor's handsome young son had died of an illness, these throngs of Byzantine subjects had come to pay respects to the dead prince. After all these categories of royal subjects had entered and departed, the Emperor and his chief minister would go into the tent and explain to the deceased boy, in turn, how it grieved them that neither their might, nor learning, nor wisdom, nor wealth and beauty, nor authority had been sufficient to prolong his promising life. The striking scene persuaded Hasan of the need to be ever mindful of his mortality, and he was transformed from a prosperous businessman into a veritable archetype of the world-renouncing ascetic."
Hasan's relationship with Muhammad Some hagiographic sources even indicate that Hasan actually met
Muhammadﷺ as an infant. The tradition relates that Muhammadﷺ, who "visited Umm Salama's house while the baby was there," "prayed for little Hasan and again bestowed blessings." On another occasion, the child Hasan is said to have drunk some water from Muhammad'sﷺ water jug. When Muhammadﷺlearned that Hasan had drunk the water, he is said to have "declared that the boy would receive knowledge from him in proportion to the water he had imbibed." ==Characteristics==