Al-Hujwiri preserves a connected account of extraordinary signs surrounding the death of Dhu al-Nun al-Misri, may Allah have mercy on him. He relates that seventy people saw the Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, in dreams on the night of Dhu al-Nun’s death, that writing appeared after his death, and that birds gathered above his funeral bier and shaded it. Al-Dhahabi also preserves a separate report that birds shaded the funeral. Another historical account places the post-death writing on the grave rather than the forehead, so that detail is kept as a separate variant.
After Dhu al-Nun had died, al-Hujwiri relates a second sign. Writing was seen on his forehead. He gives its meaning in substance as identifying Dhu al-Nun as one beloved by Allah, who had died in divine love. The report does not need any added explanation to carry its force: the extraordinary writing is presented as something noticed after his death and as part of the same death-night tradition.
The account then moves from the body to the funeral procession. Al-Hujwiri says that birds gathered above Dhu al-Nun’s bier and spread their shade over it. This is the most visual scene in the story: the funeral moves forward while birds assemble overhead and shelter the bier beneath them. The report makes this bird-shading one of the signs by which Dhu al-Nun’s funeral was remembered.
A separate account preserved by al-Dhahabi in Siyar A'lam al-Nubala gives a closely related funeral scene. Yusuf ibn Ahmad al-Baghdadi is reported to have said that birds shaded Dhu al-Nun’s funeral, and that afterward people showed greater reverence toward his grave. This second preservation is best left as its own supporting report rather than blended into al-Hujwiri’s wording.
There is also a difference in the location of the writing. While al-Hujwiri places it on Dhu al-Nun’s forehead, a report preserved in Ibn Asakir’s Tarikh Dimashq places writing on his grave. Both forms belong to the transmitted memory surrounding his death, but they are not the same detail. Attar later preserves a similar cluster of stories as well; here, however, the main narrative remains the one given by al-Hujwiri.
Taken in that source-led order, the story is clear: dreams on the night of Dhu al-Nun’s death, extraordinary writing after his death, and birds shading his funeral bier. These linked scenes form one of the best-known sets of karamah reports associated with the death and funeral of Dhu al-Nun al-Misri, may Allah have mercy on him.
Conclusion
The account closes with Dhu al-Nun al-Misri’s funeral remembered beneath the shade of gathered birds, after a night of remarkable dreams and a reported post-death inscription.