People used to say, “Ibn ʿUlayyah counts the letters.”

Hammad ibn Salamah remarked, “We would compare the noble traits of Ismaʿil ibn ʿUlayyah only with those of Yunus—until he became entangled in what he became entangled in.”

I (the author) say: he was referring to Ibn ʿUlayyah’s acceptance of the office of collecting the obligatory charity. Even so, the man was described as religious, scrupulous, and devout; he was looked up to for his virtue and knowledge. A few slight slips did appear from him, but—God willing—they did not diminish his rank.

Ibn al-Mubarak sent him some fine verses of rebuke, which read:

O you who have turned knowledge into a falcon
That hunts the wealth of the poor;
You schemed for the world and its pleasures
With a ruse that takes your religion away;
So you became infatuated with it—after once
Being a remedy for the mad;
Where are your narrations of former days
From Ibn ʿAwn and Ibn Sīrīn?
And your study of knowledge through their reports
By avoiding (1) the doors of the rulers?
You say, “I was coerced—so what?” Thus (2)
The mount of knowledge slipped in the mud;
Do not sell your religion for worldly gain,
As do the misguided monks.

Al-Khatib relates in his History that the ḥadith for which Ismaʿil was taken to task concerned a point of discourse about the Quran.