He possessed immense wealth and a truly vast fortune. The root of his prosperity went back to the household of Ahmad ibn Tulun, who had appointed him his personal jeweler and would send him to Egypt to purchase whatever rare gems might come on the market. By means of this assignment he amassed extraordinary sums of money.

Ibn al-Jaṣṣāṣ once related:

“I was one day standing at the gate of Ibn Tulun when the female steward came out holding a necklace composed of one hundred jewels, each stone worth two thousand dinars. She said, ‘I want you to grind these down so that they become smaller than this size; as they are, they protrude from what they want to fashion (1).’ I took the necklace from her and went home. I then procured smaller stones whose value was far less than a tenth (2) of the price of those original jewels, handed those over to her, and kept the necklace she had brought. Its value was two hundred thousand dinars (3).”

It so happened that in the reign of al-Muqtadir he was subjected to a massive confiscation: property equivalent to sixteen million dinars was taken from him, yet he still retained an enormous amount of wealth.

Someone recounted: “I entered his house and found him pacing about like a madman. I asked, ‘What is the matter with you (4)?’ He replied, ‘Woe to you! Such-and-such an amount has been taken from me, and I feel as though my very soul is about to depart.’ I excused him and began to console him, saying, ‘Your residence, orchards, and remaining estates are worth seven hundred thousand dinars. Be frank with me—how much jewelry and merchandise do you still have?’ It turned out to be goods valued at three hundred thousand dinars. So I said (5), ‘No merchant in all Baghdad can match you in this, together with the esteem you enjoy with the government and the people.’ At that he felt relieved, forgot what he had lost, and ate—for three days he had not taken any food (6).”

When he escaped al-Muqtadir’s confiscation through the intercession of the latter’s mother, the noble lady, he told the following story about himself:

“I looked inside the caliphal storehouse and saw one hundred coarse sacks (7) containing worn-out goods that had been brought to me from Egypt; they considered them worthless. In one of the loads I had placed a thousand dinars in Egypt, unknown to anyone. I requested that from al-Muqtadir’s mother, and she spoke to her son, who released it to me. I took possession of it, and not a single dinar was missing (8).”