In order to justify or defend the ghayba of the twelfth Imam, Twelver Shīʿī scholars have traditionally adduced a body of sayings and reports ascribed to the Prophet and the previous Imams that predict a ghayba (or two) for a future Imam. Among these reports are three that appear to suggest that a select cadre of the Imam’s followers is aware of his location during his ghayba, and - according to one of the three reports - thirty individuals are with him. These reports contradict numerous others that reject the possibility that any of his followers can see or recognize the Imam during the ghayba. They moreover would appear to be in tension with the alleged final rescript of the twelfth Imam, said to have been furnished by an individual later canonized as the fourth and last of the Imam’s plenipotentiaries days before his demise, declaring anyone who claims to see the Imam again before his emergence from ghayba “a lying impostor.” All three reports seem to have originated with a group called the Wāqifa, followers of the seventh in the twelver line of Imams who denied his death, refused to accept the imamate of his son and claimed that he had escaped from prison (which had marked his first ghayba) and entered into hiding (his second ghayba), giving rise for the first time to the notion of two ghaybas. Beginning in the tenth century, Twelver scholars reinterpreted these and other reports, bringing them into line with the nascent dogmas associated with the alleged son of the eleventh Imam. In the works of later scholars, the same reports came to serve a new purpose. One such scholar was the prolific Nūrī-Ṭabarsī (d. 1902) who devoted two substantial works to controversial stories of individuals – mainly among the ulama – claiming to have encountered the hidden Imam or witnessed his miracles during the second or “major” occultation. Aware that most of these accounts go against the warning found in the alleged last rescript, Nūrī-Ṭabarsī – and other who have followed him – set out to resolve this contradiction by adducing the same reports to defend their belief that the Imam continues to be seen and recognized by his most elite followers during the major occultation. This presentation will examine these three reports, glossing key terms, and explore the ways Nūrī-Ṭabarsī and others have exploited them to negotiate a contentious and understudied aspect of the ghayba.