Al-Aṣmaʿī related from Abū al-Zinād, from Mundhir ibn Abī Thawr, who said: “We found in Hishām’s treasuries twelve thousand shirts, every one of them showing signs of wear.

Hishām once complained to his father about three matters: first, that he feared climbing the pulpit; second, that he had little appetite; and third, that although there were a hundred slave-girls of extraordinary beauty in his palace, he could scarcely approach any of them. His father wrote back: “As for mounting the pulpit, when you reach its top, cast your gaze toward the people at the rear; that will be easier for you. As for your lack of appetite, instruct the cook to prepare many kinds of dishes; perhaps you will take a morsel from each. And make a habit of choosing every fair-skinned, full-figured beauty.”

Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Shāfiʿī said: “When Hishām ibn ʿAbd al-Malik built al-Ruṣāfah he remarked, ‘I would like to spend a single day there on which no distressing news reaches me.’ Yet before midday had passed a blood-stained feather arrived from one of the frontier garrisons. He exclaimed, ‘Not even one day?!’ This story is also transmitted through another chain, which adds that he lived only one month thereafter.

Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah said: “No letter was ever sent to Hishām that contained any mention of death.”

Abū Bakr ibn Abī Khaythamah said: “Ibrāhīm ibn al-Mundhir al-Ḥizāmī narrated to us; Ḥusayn ibn Zayd told us, from Shihāb ibn ʿAbd Rabbih, from ʿUmar ibn ʿAlī, who said: I walked with Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī—meaning the son of al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib—toward his house by the bathhouse. I said to him, ‘Hishām’s reign and authority have lasted long, now close to twenty years. People claim that Solomon asked his Lord for a dominion that would belong to no one after him, and they think that this means twenty years.’ He replied, ‘I do not know what people are saying, but my father told me, from his father, from ʿAlī, from the Prophet ﷺ, who said: “Allah will never prolong the rule of a nation of a prophet who has passed away beyond the span that the prophet himself lived among his community; for Allah granted His Prophet ﷺ thirteen years in Mecca and ten years in Madinah.”’

Abū Bakr ibn Abī Khaythamah also said: “No hadith that fixes a time limit exists except this one.” Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn read it in my book and asked, “Who related it to you?” I answered, “Ibrāhīm,” and he regretted that he had not heard it himself. Ibn Jarīr has likewise transmitted it in his History (1) from Aḥmad ibn Zuhayr, from Ibrāhīm ibn al-Mundhir al-Ḥizāmī.

[Muslim ibn Ibrāhīm narrated to us; al-Qāsim ibn al-Faḍl related; ʿIyād ibn al-Maghraʾ al-ʿAtakī (2) from ʿĀṣim ibn al-Mundhir ibn al-Zubayr, who said: (3) ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Zubayr told me that he heard ʿAlī say, “The downfall of the rule of Banū Umayyah will be at the hands of a cross-eyed man”—meaning Hishām.] (4)