Al-Khaṭīb (1) relates that a man brought a suit before al-Muhtadī against his opponent (2), and the caliph judged between them with full justice. The man thereupon recited (3):

You set him up as judge, and he ruled between you—
spotless, like the radiant full moon.
No bribe can sway his verdict,
nor does he care for the loser’s loss.

Al-Muhtadī billah said to him, “As for you, sir, may Allah reward your fine words; as for me, I did not take my seat until I had recited Allah’s saying:

‘We shall set up the scales of justice for the Day of Resurrection so that no soul will be wronged in the least. Even if it be no more than the weight of a mustard seed, We shall bring it forth, and sufficient are We as Reckoners’ (47) [al-Anbiyāʾ: 47].”

Those present began to weep, and never were more people seen in tears than on that day.

Some said that al-Muhtadī observed an unbroken fast (4) from the day he assumed the caliphate until the day he was killed—may Allah have mercy on him.

He loved to emulate the path taken by ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz of the Umayyads during his own caliphate: wariness of sin, ascetic living, abundant worship, and strict self-restraint (5).

Aḥmad ibn Saʿīd al-Umayyī recounted: “We were sitting in Mecca, a group with me discussing grammar and Arab poetry, when a man whom we took for mad stopped before us and began to declaim (6):

Do you not feel shame before Allah, O fountain of forbearance? (7)
You are engrossed in this while people face the gravest affairs.
Your imām lies slain, struck down (8),
and Islam has awoken with its unity torn apart.
Yet you remain devoted to poetry and grammar (9),
calling out with loud voices along the finest of paths.” (10)