Iyās brought him back to his own words and then asked, “Do you recite the Qur’an?” … ⟨continuation already rendered⟩ He went on to say,
“I did not recognize you at first. You sat with us dressed like ordinary folk, yet you addressed us in the language of the nobility, and we could not abide that.”

Yaʿqūb ibn Sufyān relates:
“We were told by Nuʿaym ibn Ḥammād, who was told by Ḍamrah, from Ibn Shawdhub, who said: ‘It used to be said that in every one-hundred years a man of perfect intellect is born; people considered Iyās ibn Muʿāwiyah to be one of them.’”

Al-ʿIjlī reports:
“Three women once came in to see Iyās. As soon as he looked at them he said, ‘One of them is a nursing mother, the second a virgin (bikr), and the third previously married (thayyib).’
“They asked him, ‘How did you know that?’
“He replied, ‘The nursing mother, whenever she sat down, kept hold of her breast with her hand. The virgin, whenever she entered, paid no attention to anyone. The previously married woman, whenever she entered, cast glances about the room.’”

Yūnus ibn Ḥabīb ⦗1⦘ narrates:
“We were told in Isfahān by al-Aḥnaf ibn Ḥakīm, who was told by Ḥammād ibn Salamah: I heard Iyās ibn Muʿāwiyah say, ‘I know the very night on which I was born: my mother set a large bowl on my head.’”

Al-Madaʾinī recounts:
“Iyās ibn Muʿāwiyah once asked his mother, ‘What was the loud crash I remember hearing when I was small?’
“She answered, ‘That was a copper basin that fell from the roof to the ground. I was so startled that I went into labor and gave birth to you at that very moment.’”

Abū Bakr al-Kharaʾiṭī transmits from ʿUmar ibn Shabbah al-Numayrī:
“It has reached me that Iyās said, ‘I would not be pleased to utter a single lie which my father Muʿāwiyah might discover— even if I were certain I would not be taken to account for it on the Day of Resurrection—nor even if in exchange I were given the whole world in all its entirety.’”

Abū Bakr ibn Abī al-Dunyā records:
“We were told by Khalaf ibn Hishām, who was told by Ḥammād ibn Zayd, from Ḥabīb ibn al-Shahīd, from Iyās ibn Muʿāwiyah, who said: ‘I never debated any of the people of innovation with the full force of my intellect—except the Qadariyyah (those who deny the Divine Decree). I said to them, “Tell me, what is injustice?” They replied, “It is that a person takes what does not belong to him.” I said, “But everything belongs to Allah.”’”

One of the narrators further reports from Iyās:
“I was in the kuttāb (elementary school) when I was a boy. The Christian children would mock the Muslims, saying, ‘They claim that the food of the people of Paradise leaves no waste.’ So I said to the teacher—who was himself a Christian—‘Do you not maintain that some of what we eat is absorbed as nourishment by the body?’ He answered, ‘Indeed.’ I said, ‘Then why should it be impossible for Allah to make all the food of the people of Paradise pure nourishment for their bodies?’ The teacher retorted, ‘You are nothing but a devil!’
“This remark of young Iyās, showing such keen understanding, is confirmed by an authentic hadith—as we shall mention, God willing, in the chapter describing the people of Paradise—that their food passes off as a fragrant belch and sweat like musk, so their bellies remain flat. ⦗2⦘”

Sufyān said:
“When Iyās arrived in Wāsiṭ, Ibn Shubrumah came to him with a list of questions he had prepared. He asked, ‘Do you permit me to question you?’
“Iyās replied, ‘Ask.’ I was astonished when Ibn Shubrumah put to him seventy questions, all of which Iyās answered, and they differed only on four issues.”