Ibn ʿAbbās was asked about the words of Allah, Exalted is He, “And purify your garments” (Q 74:4). He replied, “Do not put your clothes on while planning treachery,” and he cited the verses of Ghaylān al-Thaqafī:

By God’s grace I have never worn a traitor’s cloak,
Nor ever drawn a garment round me to hide disgrace.

A man asked ʿIkrimah about the word zanīm (Q 68:13). He said, “It is the child of illicit intercourse,” and he recited:

A zanīm whose father none can name—
Born of a wanton mother, of ignoble stock.

It is also reported from him that zanīm means “a shameless, contemptible slanderer.” He then quoted:

A zanīm whom men append as an added blemish,
Just as knucklebones are stitched along the edge of a hide.

ʿIkrimah further transmitted from Ibn ʿAbbās regarding Allah’s words, “possessing luxuriant branches” (Q 55:48): “That is, possessing shade and boughs. Have you not heard the poet say:

What stirred your longing in the dove’s soft cooing,
Calling from a branch among the boughs another dove?
She calls the father of two chicks who met a bird
Double-taloned, one of the falcons, a quṭām.”

ʿIkrimah also reported from Ibn ʿAbbās about Allah’s saying, “Then, all at once, they will be on al-sāhirah” (Q 79:14): “Al-sāhirah is the earth.” Ibn ʿAbbās declared this. Umayyah ibn Abī al-Ṣalt composed:

With them is the flesh of the sea and the flesh of sāhirah.

Ibn al-Anbārī added: the transmitters recite the line as follows:

And in it is meat of sāhirah and of the sea;
Whatever they utter remains for them secure.

Nāfiʿ ibn al-Azraq asked Ibn ʿAbbās, “Tell me about Allah’s words, ‘Slumber does not overtake Him, nor sleep’ (Q 2:255). What is slumber (sina)?” He answered, “Drowsiness.” Zuhayr ibn Abī Sulmā said:

No slumber through the long night overtakes him;
He neither sleeps, nor is there any lapse in what he undertakes.