—one, and that is you?”
She replied, “Yes, O Commander of the Faithful.”
He said, “The two daughters take two-thirds, four hundred dinars; the mother takes one-sixth, one hundred dinars; the wife takes one-eighth, seventy-five dinars. There remain twenty-five dinars: each brother receives two dinars (1), and you receive a single dinar.”
People marvelled at his acumen (2) and the speed of his reply. This same anecdote is also told of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib.

A poet once entered upon al-Maʾmun, having composed a line in his praise that he deemed magnificent. When he recited it, it made little impression, so he left. He met another poet and said, “Can you believe it? I recited this verse to al-Maʾmun and he did not so much as lift his head.”
The other asked, “What was it?”
He answered, “I said about him (3):
‘The Imām of guidance, al-Maʾmun, is absorbed in religion,
While the people are absorbed in the affairs of the world.’”
The second poet replied, “All you have done is turn him into an old woman in her prayer-niche! Why did you not say, as Jarīr said of ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn al-Walīd (4):
‘He is no wastrel of his share of this world,
Nor does the world’s display distract him from religion.’”

On another day al-Maʾmun said to some of his companions, “There are two lines—each by a different poet—that none has surpassed. The first is by Abū Nuwās (5):
‘When a discerning man tests the world, it is laid bare to him
As an enemy clad in the garments of a friend.’
And the second is by Shurayḥ (6):
‘Blame weighs lightly upon the world, for the one who blames it
Is himself keen to set it aright.’”

Al-Maʾmun also said (7): “One day, the crush of the crowd while I was in procession forced me into the marketplace (8), where I saw a man …”