When al-Wāthiq lay on his deathbed he kept repeating these two verses (1):
Death is a cup shared by all created beings;
neither commoner among them remains, nor king.
No harm befalls a people of small means when poverty is their lot;
nor can the possessions of the monarchs avail the monarchs.

He then ordered that the carpets be rolled up, placed his cheek upon the ground, and kept saying, “O You whose dominion never passes away, have mercy on the one whose dominion has passed away.”

One of those present related:
“When al-Wāthiq was dying and we were gathered around him, he fell unconscious. Some of us said to one another, ‘See whether his term has ended.’ I stepped forward from among them to find out whether his breath had stilled. He suddenly revived and glanced at me, so I backed away in fear; the hilt of my sword caught on something and I nearly perished. Not long afterward he died. The door of the room in which he lay was locked, and he was left there alone while the people busied themselves with pledging allegiance to his brother, Jaʿfar al-Mutawakkil. I sat guarding the door, then heard movement inside. I went in and found that a rat had eaten the very eye with which he had looked at me; only a brief time had elapsed between the two events (2).”

He died in Sāmarrāʾ, in the Hārūnī palace where he resided, on Wednesday, six days before the end of Dhu al-Ḥijjah of that year—meaning 232 AH—at the age of thirty-six; another report says thirty-two. His caliphate lasted five years, nine months, and five days; another report says five years, two months, and twenty-one days. His brother Jaʿfar al-Mutawakkil led the funeral prayer over him.

The Caliphate of al-Mutawakkil ʿalā Allāh, Jaʿfar ibn al-Muʿtaṣim bi-Allāh

After the death of his brother Hārūn al-Wāthiq, allegiance was sworn to him. The bayʿah took place when the sun had passed its zenith on Wednesday, six days before the end of Dhu al-Ḥijjah. The Turkish guards had first resolved to appoint Muḥammad ibn al-Wāthiq, but finding him too young they turned instead to Jaʿfar, who was then twenty-six years old. The one who clothed him in the robe of the caliphate was the judge Aḥmad ibn Abī Duʿād, the first to greet him as “Commander of the Faithful,” after which the elite and then the populace pledged allegiance. They had agreed to style him “al-Muntaṣir” until the morning of Friday, when Aḥmad ibn Abī Duʿād said, “I think the Commander of the Faithful should be titled al-Mutawakkil ʿalā Allāh.” They concurred, the title was dispatched to all provinces, and he ordered that the shākariyya troops receive eight months’ pay, the Maghribīs four months, and the rest of the army three months. The people welcomed his accession with joy.