He entered at the time of the Mahdi and said to me, Ibrahim Fu, "Did you hear?" I said, "Yes." He said, "The Mahdi has died." I almost flew with joy, but I hid it and it occurred to me that this news might be a trick to find out the extent of my feelings about the Mahdi's death. So I answered him immediately, saying, "I almost killed the Mahdi, because the Mahdi would not die before the world laughed like a dog, nor die in this world except in the illuminated world." The ministers, the caliphs, and the relatives of the Mahdi wrote letters and sent them to all the provinces, filling them with absurdities too numerous to recount. Among them, they said that he had chosen the highest companion. They also said that he did not die, but rather moved from the world of this life to the hereafter, and that he had appointed the caliphs and commanded obedience to him. And in the resurrection, there is an explanation of what the Mahdi promised of the rule of the whole world, saying that this would be for his companions, and they justified this by saying that the Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, promised the Mahdi the rule of all of Sudan, or a part of it, and that this was fulfilled in the days of his caliphs, may God be pleased with them all. The narrations were confused about the Mahdi's illness and death. Some said he died poisoned by one of the women who were taken captive from Khartoum. But the truth is that the Mahdi did not drink poison, nor did he see it, but rather died of a natural death, as previously mentioned.

A portion of the Mahdi's biography.

The Mahdi was a man of cunning and stratagem, but whoever contemplates the mind will find in his character a foolishness coupled with ambition for high positions. We have mentioned in his biography that he was a disciple of Sheikh Muhammad Sharif bin Sheikh Nour al-Da'im bin Sheikh Qab.