In Behaarul Anwaar, it is mentioned that Sayyid Ali bin
Muhammad bin Ja’far bin Taaoos Hasani has stated in his Rabiul
Albab2 that Hasan bin Muhammad Qasim narrated to him as follows:
Once he and a person named Ammar, an inhabitant of Kufa
were traveling out of Kufa on way to Hamalaya and they began
to discuss about Imam Qaaem Aale Muhammad (a.s.). He said: O
Hasan, let me narrate an incident.
A caravan of the Tai tribe arrived and purchased from us
goods in Kufa. There was a handsome man in that group and he
was their leader. I told a man who sat at my shop to go to such
and such Alawite and borrow the scale for me.
The Bedouin asked: “Do Alawites also live here?”
I replied: “What do you mean? The majority of the Alawites
live in this region.”
That Bedouin said: “I have left the real Alawite at such and
such place in the desert behind me.”
I asked: “Please explain to me who that is?”
He replied: “Once we three hundred riders came out to
commit robberies and roamed about for three day without any
food and water; but we could not find anything. At last we
decided to draw lots and whoever’s name is drawn, we will
slaughter and eat his horse. All accepted this proposal, but when
the lots were drawn, my name was drawn. I said: You have not
drawn in the right way. Thus, it was drawn again and again my
name came up. I rejected that draw also. Lots were drawn for the
third time and then also my name came up. Actually my horse
was worth more than a thousand dinars and I valued it more than my children.
I asked them to excuse me for sometime and spurred my
horse and rode to a sand dune at a distance of one Farsakh from
there. I saw a slave girl below that dune, picking dry twigs.
I approached her and asked: Who are you and to which
family do you belong?
She replied: I am a slave girl of an Alawite gentleman, who
resides in this valley.
I returned to my associates and said: You may rejoice now,
some people reside in the nearby valley. Let us go there
immediately.
When we rode to that valley, we found a tent pitched in the
center and a handsome young man emerged and greeted us
warmly. I said: “Arab brother, we are extremely thirsty.”
He called for water immediately.
The maid brought two bowls of water. The man put his hand
in them, one after another and passed them to us. The water was
enough to quench the thirst of all of us. When we returned the
bowl they were full to the brim and not a drop had reduced. After
quenching our thirst, we said that we were also hungry.
He went into the tent and returned with a basket of food. He
placed his hand over it and said: Ten persons should eat at a time.
We did that and all were satiated without causing any decrease in
food. Then we asked him for directions and he obliged. After
traveling for sometime, we said to each other: We had left our
families to commit robberies; since now we are refreshed, let us
stick to our original plans. So we turned back to rob the man who had given us food and water. When that young man saw us returning, he armed himself and mounted a red horse. Then he marched in our direction and sternly said: Don’t move a step with ulterior motives.
We were awestruck and we stepped back. Then he drew a
line between us and said: I swear by my grandfather, the
Messenger of Allah (s.a.w.a.) that I will strike off the head of
anyone, who crossed this line.
We returned from there in bewilderment and that man was a
real Alawite and not like these Shia people.”
It is mentioned in Fehrist Shaykh Muntajabuddin that
Thairbillah Mahdi Ibne Thairbillah Husaini Jaballi belonged to the Zaidiyyah sect and then he became an Imamite. He also claimed to have seen Imam Mahdi (a.s.).
It is also written that Abul Hasan Ali bin Muhammad bin Ali bin Abul Qasim Alawi Sherani, who was a pious scholar, had also seen Imam Zamana (a.s.).
And Abul Faraj Muzaffar bin Husain Hamadani, a trustworthy person and an envoy of Imam Zamana (a.s.), who lived during the time of Shaykh Mufeed and attended the gatherings of Sayyid Murtada and Shaykh Abu Ja’far Toosi. He had also seen Imam Zamana (a.s.).
Behaarul Anwaar, vol. 52, pp. 75-77