Although I stayed in the same house as them for two years, I could not tell the three older ones apart. I paid them so little attention, how could I have done? Another scholar came and stayed together with me as a guest, and within two days he knew them and could tell them one from the other. They were all perplexed at my attitude, and asked me: `Why do you not look at them?' I replied: `Preserving the dignity of learning does not allow me to look at them. "'

The last time Molla Said received a lesson and was taught by anyone was while he was in Bitlis, from one of its leading Seyhs. Seyh Mehmed Kufrevi. Then one night following this, he dreamt of the Seyh, who said to him in his dream: "Molla Said, come and visit me. I am leaving." So Said immediately went to him, and when he saw that the Seyh had already gone, he awoke. He looked at his watch, it was one o'clock in the morning. He went back to sleep again. When in the morning he heard the sound of morning and weeping coming from the direction of the Seyh's house, he hurried there to find that the Seyh had died at one o'clock the night before. Uttering a prayer for him, Said returned home sadly.

Molla Said had tremendous love for the great Seyhs of eastern Anatolia, such as Seyyid Nur Muhammed. Seyh Abdurrahman Tagi, Seyh Fehim and Seyh Mehmed Kufrevi, from each of whom he had received lessons and instruction in different aspects of the spiritual life. And so also did he greatly love the leading ulema such as Seyh Emin Efendi, Molla Fethullah, and Seyh Fethullah Efendi, who had taught him.

While Bitlis was a religious centre with many ulema, there were no well-known `ulema in Van at that time. Thus, when Molla Said received an invitation from the Governor, Hasan Pasa, he left Bitlis for Van. With the exception of his visit to lstanbul, he was to stay there off and on studying and teaching, and travelling among the tribes as a conciliator and man of religion until he left for Istanbul at the end of 1907. He was around nineteen or twenty years of age when he moved there.