O Commander of the Believers, I was once a camel-driver. As I was travelling from Marj al-Suffar (1) on my way to al-Kiswah (2), I was suddenly overcome by the need to relieve myself. I therefore turned aside into a deserted ruin, where I noticed an underground chamber; I dug into it and found a flow of money. I filled my saddle-bags with it, then set off leading my beasts. I was carrying a feed-bag that held some food, so I emptied it, telling myself that I would reach al-Kiswah, and went back to the ruin to fill that bag with the money as well. Despite strenuous searching, I could no longer find the place. When I despaired of locating it, I returned to the animals—only to discover that they and the food were gone. I thereupon swore that I would eat nothing thereafter except bread mixed with earth.

Al-Walid asked, “Do you have dependants?” He replied, “Yes,” so al-Walid assigned him a stipend from the Bayt al-Mal.

Ibn Jābir (3) said: We have also been informed that those riding-beasts went on until they reached the Bayt al-Mal; its guard took possession of them and placed them inside.

[Another report states that al-Walid told him, “That money has already reached us; go back to your camels and take them.” Yet another version says he gave him some of that money to support himself and his family] (4).

Namir ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Ṣanʿānī (5) relates from his father that al-Walid ibn ʿAbd al-Malik once said, “Had Allah not mentioned the people of Lot in the Quran, I would never have imagined that anyone could commit such an act.” (6)

They also report that al-Walid was prone to grammatical errors. On one occasion, while delivering a sermon, he recited, “Would that it had been the decisive end” (Q 69:27) but read the tāʾ of “laytaha” with a ḍamma. ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz remarked, “Would that it had been upon you, and relieved us of you.” (7)

He would likewise say, “O peopleُ of Madinah …”—again misdeclining the word “people.”