In one dream recounted by him, he believed that he was granted permission to transmit knowledge by each of the twelve Imams.

There is evidence of neo-Qarmaṭī influence in the al-Aḥsā region after the 1760s, but the possibility of links with the shaikh remains purely speculative. He himself indicated that, from early childhood, he developed a predilection for introspection, seclusion, and asceticism. At an unspecified age—probably during adolescence—he experienced a series of dreams and visions, of the type familiar to Shiʿite piety, in which the Imams or the Prophet figured as transmitters of supernatural knowledge. In one dream recounted by him, he believed that he was granted eǰāza or permission to transmit knowledge by each of the twelve Imams.

http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/ahsai-shaikh-ahmad