He said, “Go, and give them legal verdicts. If someone comes to you asking about a matter that truly concerns him, then issue a ruling for him; but if he asks about something that does not concern him, do not answer him—for in that way you will cast off two-thirds of the people’s burden.”
ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd ibn Bahrām said: “I saw ʿIkrimah with a white beard. He was wearing a white turban whose end hung between his shoulders, wrapped beneath his beard. His shirt fell to the ankles, and his cloak was also white. He visited Bilāl ibn Mirdās—who at that time was governor of al-Madāʾin (1)—and Bilāl presented him with three thousand, which he accepted.”
Abū Saʿīd ibn Yūnus said: “ʿIkrimah was a resident of Medina; he had also lived in Mecca, and he came to Egypt.”
I say: He traveled a great deal.
He said: “He stayed with ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Ḥassās al-Ghāfiqī and then went on to Ifrīqiyah.”
Al-ʿAbbās ibn Muṣʿab al-Marwazī said: “Of all the disciples of Ibn ʿAbbās, he was the most learned in Qur’anic exegesis (2), and he would circulate through the lands making himself available.”
He arrived in Marw to see Makhlad ibn Yazīd ibn al-Muhallab, and he used to sit among the saddle-makers in the shop of Abū Salamah the saddler, Mughīrah ibn Muslim. Makhlad then mounted him on a green mule.
Abū Tumaylah narrated—from Ḍimād ibn ʿĀmir al-Qasmalī, from al-Farazdaq ibn Jawwās al-Ḥimmānī—that he said:
“We were with Shahr ibn Ḥawshab in Jurjān when ʿIkrimah arrived. We said to Shahr, ‘Shall we not go to him?’ He replied, ‘Go to him, for no community has ever been without its scholar, and the client of Ibn ʿAbbās is the scholar of this community.’”
ʿAbd al-Ṣamad ibn Maʿqil said: “When ʿIkrimah came to the army camp, Ṭāwūs presented him with young camels worth sixty dinars.”
Someone said to Ṭāwūs, “What is this slave going to do with young camels worth sixty dinars?”
He replied, “Do you imagine I would not purchase the knowledge of Ibn ʿAbbās for sixty dinars on behalf of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṭāwūs?”
Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn said: “Ibn ʿAbbās died while ʿIkrimah was still a slave who had not been manumitted, so he sold him…”