A man once said to him, “How fortunate you are! You have spent your lifetime in worship, forsaking the world and marriage.” Ibrāhīm replied, “Do you have dependents?” “Yes,” the man answered. He said, “The dread a man sometimes feels for his family in the face of poverty is worth more than worship for so-and-so many years.”

Al-Awzāʿī met him in Beirut with a bundle of firewood slung across his neck and said, “Abū Isḥāq, your brothers would spare you this.” Ibrāhīm answered, “Be silent, Abū ʿAmr. I have heard that when a man stands humbly in pursuit of what is lawful, Paradise becomes his due.”

Ibn Adham once departed from Bayt al-Maqdis (Jerusalem). On the road he was seized by a highway patrol (al-maslaḥa). “Are you a slave?” they asked. “Yes,” he said. “A runaway?” “Yes.” They imprisoned him. When the people of Jerusalem learned of this, they all went to the deputy governor of Tiberias and said, “Why have you jailed Ibrāhīm ibn Adham?” “I have not jailed him,” he replied. “Indeed, he is in your prison,” they insisted. The governor had him brought and asked, “Why were you jailed?” Ibrāhīm said, “Ask the patrol.” They asked, “Are you a slave?” He replied, “Yes, a slave of Allah.” “A runaway?” “Yes,” he said, “a runaway slave—from my own sins.” The governor then released him.

They relate that while travelling with a party he encountered a lion blocking the road. Ibrāhīm stepped forward and said, “O qaswara (lion), if you have been commanded concerning us, carry out what you have been commanded; otherwise, return whence you came.” They say the beast turned away, flicking its tail. Ibrāhīm returned to us and said, “Say: ‘O Allah, watch over us with Your eye that never sleeps; shelter us beneath Your unassailable protection; show us mercy through Your power over us; and do not let us perish while You remain our hope—O Allah, O Allah, O Allah.’ ” Khalaf ibn Tamīm said, “I have recited this supplication ever since, and no thief or anything else has ever troubled me.”

There are other corroborating reports. It is narrated that on one night, while he was standing in prayer, three lions approached. Each in turn advanced, sniffed his clothes, then lay down nearby, while he continued praying. At the pre-dawn hour he said to them, “If you have been ordered to do something, come forward; otherwise, be off.” They left.

On another occasion he climbed a mountain in Mecca with some companions and said, “If one of Allah’s friends commanded a mountain to move, it would move.” At once the mountain beneath him quaked. He nudged it with his foot and said, “Be still; I mentioned you only as an example for my companions.” The mountain was Abū Qubays.

He once boarded a ship, and waves battered them from every side. Ibrāhīm wrapped his cloak round his head and lay down while the crew cried out in fear and supplication. They woke him, saying, “Do you not see the hardship we are in?” He replied, “This is not hardship; true hardship is to be in need of people.” Then he prayed, “O Allah, You have shown us Your power—now show us Your pardon.” The sea became as calm as a bowl of oil.

The captain had been pressing him for two dinars fare. Ibrāhīm said, “Come with me and I will give you your two dinars.” He led him to an island, performed ablution, prayed two rakʿahs, and supplicated. At once the ground around him was strewn with dinars. “Take what is yours and no more,” he said, “and tell no one of this.”