They relate that Hisham once came upon some people harvesting olives too roughly. He said, “Gather them gently, picking up what has fallen, and do not shake the trees so violently; otherwise you will burst the fruit and break the branches.”

He also used to say, “Three matters do not demean a man of noble rank: tending to one’s estate⦗1⦘, setting one’s livelihood in order, and pursuing one’s rightful due, even when it is small.”

Abu Bakr al-Kharaʾiṭī said, “It is reported that Hisham uttered no poetry except this single verse:
If you do not resist desire, desire will lead you
---to every affair for which people will censure you.
Other lines, however, are also transmitted from him.”

Al-Madāʾinī relates—from Ibn Yasār⦗2⦘ al-Aʿrajī, who heard it from Ibn Abī Bajīlah⦗3⦘—that ʿIqāl ibn Shabah said: “I entered upon Hisham while he was wearing a green, sable-lined⦗4⦘ coat. He appointed me to Khurasan and began to instruct me, and I kept looking at the coat. He noticed and asked, ‘What is the matter with you?’ I replied, ‘You are wearing a green sable coat; I saw you in one just like it before you became caliph, and I am wondering whether this is the very same garment or another.’ He said, ‘By Allah, besides Whom there is no god, it is the same one. I own no other coat like it. Whatever you see of my amassing and safeguarding wealth is only for your benefit.’”

ʿIqāl added, “Hisham was stuffed with intelligence.”⦗5⦘

ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAlī, the uncle of al-Saffāḥ, said, “I reviewed the fiscal registers of the Umayyads and found none better for both the common people and the ruler than the register of Hisham.”

Al-Madāʾinī also reports from Ghassān⦗6⦘ ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd: “No one among the Banū Marwān watched over his officials and bureaus more closely, or investigated them more rigorously, than Hisham. He is the one who put Ghaylān the Qadarī to death. When Ghaylān was brought before him, Hisham said, ‘Woe to you! State what you believe. If it is the truth, we shall follow it; if it is falsehood, you must renounce it.’ Maimūn ibn Mihrān debated him, and Hisham asked Maimūn, ‘Did Allah will to be disobeyed?’ Maimūn replied, ‘Could I disobey Allah against my own will?’ Ghaylān fell silent, whereupon Hisham had him shackled and executed.”