He was the owner of the zawiya near the town of the Prophet Ibrāhīm (namely the city of Khalīl). He was famous for his piety and worship. He gained renown for feeding those who passed by and those who visited him. Melik Manṣūr Qalāwūn praised him greatly and used to say about him: “When he was an emir, I met with him. He told me then that certain things would happen in the future, and all that he said came to pass. He told me that I would become a ruler. I became a ruler.”
Qutb al-Dīn al-Yūnīnī transmitted these words. While transmitting them, he also explained the reason why he was a person who wept much as follows:
Shaykh ʿAlī had a friendship with a man who had wondrous spiritual states and karāmāt (saintly wonders). They set out together from Baghdad and reached a town a year's distance from Baghdad in one hour. The man told him, “I will die at such-and-such time. When that time comes, find me in such-and-such town.” Let us hear the rest of the story from Shaykh ʿAlī himself: “When the time my friend told me about came, I went to the town he told me to go to. When I arrived, he was dying. He was lying on his bed facing east. I turned him toward the qibla. But he turned back to the east. I turned him again toward the qibla. He opened his eyes and said to me: ‘Do not tire yourself in vain. I will surely die facing east.’ He said this and began to recite certain prayers that the monks recite. Until he died, he was occupied with those prayers. When he died, we took him to a church in that town. We saw that the people of the church were very saddened. When we asked them, “What is this state of yours?” they said: “We had an old man of 100 years with us. Today he died as a Muslim.” We said to them, “Take this dead man instead. Give us our man in exchange.” We took the old man who died as a Muslim, washed and shrouded him, performed his prayer, and buried him in the Muslim cemetery. The Christians took my friend and buried him in the Christian cemetery. We pray that Allah grants us a good end.”
Shaykh ʿAlī al-Bakkāʾ passed away in the month of Rajab of this year.