Al-Qifti, however, denigrates this account and instead turns to a comment he discovered, written by Abū Hayyān al-Tawhīdī (d. 1023) in his "Kitāb al-Imtā' wa'l-Mu'ānasa" (written between 983 and 985), a collection of 37 séances at the court of Ibn Sa'dān, vizier of the Buyid ruler Samsam al-Dawla. Apparently, al-Tawhīdī was close to Zaid ibn Rifa'a, praising his intellect, ability and deep knowledge – indeed, he had dedicated his "Kitāb as-Sadiq wa 'l-Sadaqa" to Zaid – but he was disappointed that Zaid was not orthodox or consistent in his beliefs, and that he was, as Samuel Miklos Stern puts it: