so he handed him his ring. When the beggar turned to leave, he called him back and said, “Do not think that I summoned you because I begrudged what I have given you. This gemstone alone cost me five hundred dinars; see to it that you remove it carefully.” The beggar took the ring, snapped it apart, tossed the stone back to him, and said, “May Allah bless you in your gemstone. The silver is enough to provide for me and my family today.”

Abu al-ʿAbbās Thaʿlab said, “For fifty years I never once missed finding Ibrāhīm al-Harbī present at a session devoted to language or grammar.” (1)

Abu ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī recounted: “I asked al-Dāraquṭnī about Ibrāhīm al-Harbī, and he replied, ‘In his asceticism, knowledge, and scrupulousness he could be compared to Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal.’” (2)

It is also reported that al-Muʿtaḍid sent Ibrāhīm al-Harbī ten thousand, which he returned; later he forwarded a thousand dinars, and Ibrāhīm returned those as well. (3)

Abu al-Faḍl ʿUbayd Allah al-Zuhri narrated—through his father ʿAbd al-Raḥmān—from Ibrāhīm al-Harbī, who said, “I have never recited a single line of poetry without following it by reciting, ‘Say: He is Allah, the One’ (Qur’an 112:1) three times.” (4)

Abu al-Ḥasan al-Dāraquṭnī said, “Ibrāhīm was a consummate imam in every science, utterly reliable.”

Abu Dharr al-Harawī related: “I heard Abū Ṭāhir al-Mukhlis; I heard my father say: I heard …”