He and his brother ʿAbd Allah would make regular visits to Madinah; ʿAbd Allah would lavish the people with knowledge, while ʿUbayd Allah would lavish them with generosity.

It is related that on one journey he and a freed-servant of his stopped by the tent of a Bedouin. The Bedouin, struck by ʿUbayd Allah’s noble bearing and handsome appearance, held him in great esteem and said to his wife,
“Woe to you! What do you have for this noble guest of ours?”
She answered, “We have nothing but this little ewe (1) whose milk keeps your daughter alive.”
He replied, “We must slaughter her.”
She protested, “Will you kill your own daughter?”
He said, “Even so.”
Then he took the knife and the ewe, and while slaughtering and skinning it he chanted:
“O neighbour, do not wake the little girl;
If you wake her, she will weep over me,
And you will snatch the knife from my hands.”

He prepared the meat, set it before ʿUbayd Allah and his servant, and gave them supper. ʿUbayd Allah had overheard his conversation with his wife about the sheep. When he was about to depart he said to his servant, “Woe to you, how much money do you have with you?”
The servant replied, “I have five hundred dinars left from your expenses.”
He said, “Give them to the Bedouin.”
The servant objected, “Glory be to Allah! You are giving him five hundred dinars when he only slaughtered a single sheep worth five dirhams!”
ʿUbayd Allah answered, “Shame on you! By Allah, he is more generous and magnanimous than we are, for we are only giving him a portion of what we possess [whereas he has bestowed on us everything he owns] (2), preferring us to his own self and his child.”

When this reached Muʿāwiyah he said, “By Allah, what a man ʿUbayd Allah is—out of what egg was he hatched [and from what nest did he take flight] (3)!”

Khalīfah ibn Khayyāṭ (4) said: He died in the year 58 AH. Others said: He died during the reign of Yazīd ibn Muʿāwiyah. Abū ʿUbayd al-Qāsim ibn Sallām said: He died in the year 87 AH. He passed away in Madinah, though some say in Yemen.

Only one hadith is transmitted from him. Aḥmad said: Hushaym narrated to us; he said: Yaḥyā ibn [Abī] (5) Isḥāq narrated to us, from Sulaymān ibn Yasār, from ʿUbayd Allah ibn ʿAbbās, who said:

Al-Ghumaysāʾ (6)—or al-Rumaysāʾ—came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, complaining that her husband no longer had marital relations with her. Shortly afterwards her husband arrived and claimed that she was lying and merely wished to return to her first husband. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said,

“ You do not have that right until another man has tasted your intimate sweetness.” (7)