He said, “Will you not tell me about ʿUmar?”
She replied, “Since the day he was entrusted with the caliphate, I do not know of him ever performing the full ritual bath for sexual impurity—whether from marital relations or a nocturnal emission.”

Yaḥyā ibn Ḥamzah reported: ʿAmr ibn Muhājir narrated to us that ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz would keep the state candle burning only while he was occupied with the Muslims’ affairs; once he finished, he extinguished it and lit his own private lamp.

Mālik said: Ambergris was once brought to ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, and he held his nose lest he catch its scent.
And from him it is also related that he blocked his nose when musk from the public treasury was presented.

Khālid ibn Mirdās narrated: al-Ḥakam ibn ʿUmar said, “ʿUmar had three hundred bodyguards and three hundred police officers. I heard him say to the guards, ‘Divine decree already stands between me and any harm, and my appointed term is my true watchman. Whoever among you chooses to remain will receive ten dinars; whoever wishes may return to his family.’ ”

ʿAmr ibn ʿUthmān al-Ḥimṣī narrated: Khālid ibn Yazīd related to us, from Jaʿwanah, who said:
“A man entered upon ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz and said, ‘O Commander of the Believers, for those before you the caliphate was their adornment, whereas you are the adornment of the caliphate.’ ʿUmar turned away from him.”

ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn ʿUmar reported: Rajāʾ ibn Ḥaywah said to me, “How perfect your father’s sense of dignity is! I spent an evening with him and the lamp dimmed while a young servant lay asleep beside him. I asked, ‘Shall I wake him?’ He replied, ‘No, leave him.’ I offered, ‘Then I will get up.’ He said, ‘No; it is not proper etiquette for a man to make use of his guest.’ So he rose, went over to the baṭṭah⦗1⦘ of oil, adjusted the lamp, then returned and said, ‘I stood up as ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz and I sat back down still ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz.’ ”

—May Allah have mercy on him—he was eloquent and articulate.

Ḥammād ibn Salamah narrated from Rajāʾ…

⦗1⦘ A small oil flask or jug used for refilling lamps.