The Ṣúfís, concerning whom we shall say a few words presently, claim Ḥasan as one of themselves, and with justice in so far as he attached importance to spiritual righteousness, and was not satisfied with merely external acts of devotion. "A grain of genuine piety," he declared, "is better than a thousandfold weight of fasting and prayer."[437] But although some of his sayings which are recorded in the later biographies lend colour to the fiction that he was a full-blown Ṣúfí, there can be no doubt that his mysticism--if it deserves that name--was of the most moderate type, entirely lacking the glow and exaltation which we find in the saintly woman, Rábi‘a al-‘Adawiyya, with whom legend associates him.[438] [Sidenote: The derivation of 'Ṣúfí.'] [Sidenote: The beginnings of Ṣúfiism.] The origin of the name 'Ṣúfí' is explained by the Ṣúfís themselves in many different ways, but of the derivations which have been proposed only three possess any claim to consideration, viz., those which connect it with σοφός (wise) or with _ṣafá_ (purity) or with _ṣúf_ (wool).[439] The first two are inadmissible on linguistic grounds, into which we need not enter, though it may be remarked that the derivation from _ṣafá_ is consecrated by the authority of the Ṣúfí Saints, and is generally accepted in the East.[440] The reason for this preference appears in such definitions as "The Ṣúfí is he who keeps his heart pure (_ṣáfí_) with God,"[441] "Ṣúfiism is 'the being chosen for purity' (_iṣṭifá_): whoever is thus chosen and made pure from all except God is the true Ṣúfí."[442] Understood in this sense, the word had a lofty significance which commended it to the elect. Nevertheless it can be tracked to a quite humble source. Woollen garments were frequently worn by men of ascetic life in the early times of Islam in order (as Ibn Khaldún says) that they might distinguish themselves from those who affected a more luxurious fashion of dress. Hence the name 'Ṣúfí,' which denotes in the first instance an ascetic clad in wool (_ṣúf_), just as the Capuchins owed their designation to the hood (_cappuccio_) which they wore. According to Qushayrí, the term came into common use before the end of the second century of the Hijra (= 815 A.D.). By this time, however, the ascetic movement in Islam had to some extent assumed a new character, and the meaning of 'Ṣúfí,' if the word already existed, must have undergone a corresponding change. It seems to me not unlikely that the epithet in question marks the point of departure from orthodox asceticism and that, as Jámí states, it was first applied to Abú Háshim of Kúfa (_ob._ before 800 _A.D._), who founded a monastery (_khánaqáh_) for Ṣúfís at Ramla in Palestine. Be that as it may, the distinction between asceticism (_zuhd_) and Ṣúfiism--a distinction which answers, broadly speaking, to the _via purgativa_ and the _via illuminativa_ of Western mediæval mysticism--begins to show itself before the close of