Abū Dharr al-Harawī said: One of our companions in Baghdad told me that Ibrāhīm al-Harbī had attended the audition of the masāʾil (legal questions) of Ibn al-Qāsim from ʿAlī b. al-Ḥārith b. Miskīn, and that he listened to them together with another man. That man later inclined toward kalām (speculative theology), so Ibrāhīm refused to borrow the text from him and instead returned and heard it again from al-Ḥasan b. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Jarawī, from Ibn Abī al-Ghumr, from Ibn al-Qāsim. (1)

I say: Indeed, al-Harbī’s works show that he engages deeply with hadiths and cites them in great number; this proves that he never ceased to be a seeker of knowledge.

Al-Mukhlis narrated from his father that the Caliph al-Muʿtaḍid once sent money to Ibrāhīm al-Harbī. He sent it back with the sharpest rebuff, saying, “Return it to the one you took it from, for he needs even a single fals.” (2)

He would wash his garment only once every four months.

On one occasion he slipped in the mud, and I continued to see the mud stain on his clothes until the next time he washed them.

ʿAbd al-Wahhāb b. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Tamīmī al-Ḥanbalī reported: Abū al-Ḥusayn al-ʿAtakī told us that he heard Ibrāhīm al-Harbī ask a group in his presence,

“Whom do you consider the stranger in your age?”

One man replied, “The stranger is he who is far from his homeland.”

Another said, “The stranger is he who has parted from those he loves.”

Ibrāhīm said, “The stranger in our time is a righteous man who lived among righteous people: when he enjoined what is right they supported him; when he forbade what is wrong they helped him; when he needed some worldly means they provided for him—then they died and left him behind.” (3)

Aḥmad b. Marwān al-Dīnawarī said: We came to Ibrāhīm al-Harbī while he was sitting—