Abu Eshaq Ibrahim ibn Adham, born in Balkh of pure Arab descent, is described in Sufi legend as a prince who renounced his kingdom (somewhat after the fashion of the Buddha) and wandered westwards to live a life of complete asceticism, earning his bread in Syria by honest manual toil until his death in c. 165 (782). Some accounts state that he was killed on a naval expedition against Byzantium. The story of his conversion is a classic of Muslim hagiography.

The legend of Ibrahim ibn Adham

Ibrahim ibn Adham’s saintly career began in the following manner. He was king of Balkh, and a whole world was under his command; forty gold swords and forty gold maces were carried before and behind him. One night he was asleep on his royal couch. At midnight the roof of the apartment vibrated, as if someone was walking on the roof.

“Who is there?” he shouted.

“A friend,” came the reply. “I have lost a camel, and am searching for it on this roof.”

“Fool, do you look for the camel on the roof?” cried Ibrahim.

“Heedless one,” answered the voice, “do you seek for God in silken clothes, asleep on a golden couch?”

These words filled his heart with terror. A fire blazed within him, and he could not sleep any more. When day came he returned to the dais and sat on his throne, thoughtful, bewildered and full of care. The ministers of state stood each in his place; his slaves were drawn up in serried ranks. General audience was proclaimed.

Suddenly a man with aweful mien entered the chamber, so terrible to look upon that none of the royal retinue and servants dared ask him his name; the tongues of all clove to their throats. He advanced solemnly till he stood before the throne.

“What do you want?” demanded Ibrahim.

“I have just alighted at this caravanserai,” said the man. “This is not a caravanserai. This is my palace. You are mad,” shouted Ibrahim.

“Who owned this palace before you?” asked the man.

“My father,” Ibrahim replied.

“And before him?”

“My grandfather.”

“And before him?”

“So-and-so.”

“And before him?”

“The father of So-and-so.”

“Where have they all departed?” asked the man.

“They have gone. They are dead,” Ibrahim replied.

“Then is this not a caravanserai which one man enters and another leaves?”

With these words the stranger vanished. He was Khizr, upon whom be peace. The fire blazed more fiercely still in Ibrahim’s soul, and the anguish within him augmented momently. Visions by day followed the hearing of voices by night, equally mysterious and incomprehensible.

“Saddle my horse,” Ibrahim cried at last. “I will go to the hunt. I know not what this thing is that has come upon me today. Lord God, how will this affair end?”

His horse was saddled and he proceeded to the chase. Headlong he galloped across the desert; it was as if he knew not 9 what he was doing. In that state of bewilderment he became separated from his troops. On the way he suddenly heard a voice.

“Awake!”

He pretended not to have heard, and rode on. A second time the voice came, but he heeded it not. A third time he heard the same, and hurled himself farther away. Then the voice sounded a fourth time.

“Awake, before you are stricken awake!”

He now lost all self-control. At that instant a deer started up, and Ibrahim prepared to give chase. The deer spoke to him.

“I have been sent to hunt you. You cannot catch me. Was it for this that you were created, or is this what you were commanded?”

“Ah, what is this that has come upon me?” Ibrahim cried.

And he turned his face from the deer. He thereupon heard the same words issuing from the pommel of his saddle. Terror and fear possessed him. The revelation became clearer yet, for Almighty God willed to complete the transaction. A third time the selfsame voice proceeded from the collar of his cloak. The revelation was thus consummated, and the heavens were opened unto him.

Sure faith was now established in him. He dismounted; all his garments, and the horse itself, were dripping with his tears. He made true and sincere repentance. Turning aside from the road, he saw a shepherd wearing felt clothes and a hat of felt, driving his sheep before him. Looking closely, he saw that he was a slave of his. He bestowed on him his gold-embroidered cloak and bejewelled cap, together with the sheep, and took from him his clothes and hat of felt. These he donned himself. All the angelic hosts stood gazing on Ibrahim.

“What a kingdom has come to the son of Adham,” they cried. “He has cast away the filthy garments of the world, and has donned the glorious robes of poverty.”

Even so he proceeded on foot to wander over mountains and endless deserts, lamenting over his sins, until he came to Merv. There he saw a man who had fallen from the bridge and was about to perish, swept away by the river. Ibrahim shouted from afar.

“O God, preserve him!”

The man remained suspended in the air until helpers arrived and drew him up. They were astonished at Ibrahim.

“What man is this?” they cried.

Ibrahim departed from that place, and marched on to Nishapur. There he searched for a desolate corner where he might busy himself with obedience to God. In the end he hit upon the famous cave where he dwelt for nine years, three years in each apartment. Who knows what occupied him there through the nights and days? For it needed a mighty man of uncommon substance to be able to be there alone by night.

Every Thursday he would climb above the cavern and collect a bundle of firewood. Next morning he would set out, for Nishapur and there sell the brushwood. Having performed the Friday prayers, he would buy bread with the money he had gained, give half to a beggar and use half himself to break his fast. So he did every week.

One winter’s night he was in that apartment. It was extremely cold, and he had to break the ice to wash. All night he shivered, praying through till dawn. By dawn he was in danger of perishing from the cold. By chance the thought ` of a fire entered his mind. He saw a fur on the ground. Wrapping himself up in the fur, he fell asleep. When he awoke it was -broad daylight, and he had become warm. He looked, and saw that the fur was a dragon, its eyes saucers of blood. A mighty terror came upon him.

“Lord God,” he cried, “Thou didst send this thing unto me in a shape of gentleness. Now I see it in a dreadful form. I cannot endure it.”

Immediately the dragon moved away, twice or thrice rubbed its face in the ground before him, and vanished.

Ibrahim ibn Adham goes to Makkah

When the fame of Ibrahim ibn Adham’s doings spread abroad amongst men, he fled from the cave and set out towards Makkah. In the desert he encountered one of the great men of the Faith, who taught him the Greatest Name of God and then took his departure. Ibrahim called upon God by that Name, and immediately he beheld Khizr, upon whom be peace.

“Ibrahim,” said Khizr, “that was my brother David who taught you the Greatest Name.”

Then many words passed between Khizr and Ibrahim. Khizr was the first who drew Ibrahim out, by the leave of God. Ibrahim relates as follows concerning the next stage of his pilgrimage.

“On reaching Dhat al-‘Erq I saw seventy men wearing the patchwork frock lying dead there, the blood gushing out of their noses and ears. Circling them, I found one who still had a spark of life in him.

“‘Young man,’ I cried, ‘what has happened here?’

“‘Son of Adham,’ he answered me, ‘keep to the water and the prayer-niche. Go not far away, lest you be banished; and come not too near, lest you be anguished. Let no man be overbold in the presence of Sultan. Have a lively fear of the Friend who slays pilgrims as if they were Greek infidels, and wages war upon pilgrims. We were a Sufi community who had set out into the desert trusting in God, resolved not to utter one word, to think of naught but God, to move and be still only with God in view and to heed none but Him. When we had crossed the desert and were come to the place where pilgrims robe themselves in white, Khizr, upon whom be peace, came to us. We greeted him, and he returned our salute, and we were very happy, saying, “Praise be to God, the journey was blessed, the quester has reached his quest, for such a holy person came out to meet us.” Forthwith a voice cried within us, “You liars and pretenders, such were your words and covenant! You forgot Me, and busied yourselves with another. Depart! I will not make peace with you until I snatch away your souls in recompense and shed your blood with the sword of jealous wrath.” These brave men whom you see lying here are all victims of this retaliation. Beware, Ibrahim! You too have the same ambition. Halt, or depart far away!’

“‘Why did they spare you, then?’ I asked, deeply perplexed by his words.

“‘They told me, “They are ripe, you are still raw. Live on a few moments yet, and you too will be ripe. When you are ripe, you too will come in their wake.”’ So saying, he gave up the ghost.”

Ibrahim was fourteen years crossing the desert, praying and humbling himself all the way. When he drew near to Makkah, the elders of the Haram hearing of his approach came out to meet him. He thrust himself ahead of the caravan so that no one might recognize him. The servants preceded the elders, and they saw Ibrahim going ahead of the caravan; but not having seen him before, they did not recognize him. Coming up to him, they cried, “Ibrahim ibn Adham is near at hand. The elders of the Haram have come out to meet him.”

“What do you want of that heretic?” Ibrahim demanded.

Straightway they set upon him and beat him up.

“The elders of Makkah go out to meet him, and you call him a heretic?” they shouted.

‘I say he is a heretic,” Ibrahim repeated.

When they left him, Ibrahim turned to himself.

“Ha!” he cried. “You wanted the elders to come out to meet you. Well, you have collected a few punches. Praise be to God that I have seen you get your wish!”

Ibrahim then took up residence in Makkah. A circle of companions formed around him, and he earned his bread by the labour of his hands, working as a carpenter.

Ibrahim at Makkah is visited by his son

When Ibrahim ibn Adham quitted Balkh he left behind him a suckling child. The latter, by now grown up, asked his mother one day about his father.

“Your father is lost,” she replied.

The son thereupon made proclamation that all who desired to perform the pilgrimage should assemble. Four thousand presented themselves. He gave them all their expenses to cover provisions and camels and led the party Makkahwards, hoping that God might grant him sight of his father. Reaching Makkah, they encountered by the door of the Holy Mosque a party of patch-work-frocked Sufis.

“Do you know Ibrahim ibn Adham?” the son enquired.

“He is a friend of ours,” they told him. “He is entertaining us, and has gone to hunt for food.”

The son asked them to direct him, and he went in his track. The party emerging in the lower quarter of Makkah, he saw his father unshod and bareheaded coming along with a load of firewood. Tears sprang to his eyes, but he controlled himself and followed in his father’s wake to the market. There his father began to shout.

“Who will buy goodly things for goodly things?”

A baker called to him and took the firewood in exchange for bread. Ibrahim brought the bread and laid it before his companions.

“If I say who I am,” the son feared, “he will run away.”

So he went to take counsel with his mother as to the best way of recovering his father. His mother advised patience.

“Be patient until we make the pilgrimage.”

When the boy departed, Ibrahim sat down with his associates.

“Today there are women and children on this pilgrimage. Mind your eyes,” he charged them.

All accepted his counsel. When the pilgrims entered Makkah and made the circumambulation of the Kaaba, Ibrahim with his companions also circled the Holy House. A handsome boy approached him, and Ibrahim looked at him keenly. His friends noticed this and were astonished, but waited until they had finished the circumambulation.

“God have mercy on you!” they then said to Ibrahim. “You bade us not to glance at any woman or child, and then you yourself gazed at a handsome lad.”

“Did you see?” Ibrahim exclaimed.

“We saw,” they replied.

“When I left Balkh,” Ibrahim told them, “I abandoned there a suckling son. I know that the lad is that son.”

Next day one of the companions went out before Ibrahim to look for the caravan from Balkh. Coming upon it, he observed in the midst of the caravan a tent pitched all of brocade. In the tent a throne was set, and the boy was seated on the throne, reciting the Quran and weeping. Ibrahim’s friend asked if he might enter.

“Where do you come from?” he enquired.

“From Balkh,” the boy replied.

“Whose son are you?”

The boy put his hand to his face and began to weep.

“I have never seen my father, “he said, laying aside the Quran. “Not until yesterday—I do not know whether it was he or not. I am afraid that if I speak he will run away, as he ran away from us before. My father is Ibrahim-e Adham the King of Balkh.”

The man seized him to bring him to Ibrahim. His mother rose and went along with him. Ibrahim, as they approached him, was seated with his companions before the Yemeni Corner. He espied from afar his friend with the boy and his mother. As soon as the woman saw him she cried aloud and could control herself no longer.

“This is your father.”

An indescribable tumult arose. All the bystanders and friends of Ibrahim burst into tears. As soon as the boy recovered himself he saluted his father. Ibrahim returned his greeting and took him to his breast.

“What religion do you follow?” he asked.

“The religion of Islam,” answered his son.

“Praise be to God,” cried Ibrahim. “Do you know the Quran?”

“I do.”

“Praise be to God. Have you studied the faith?”

“I have.”

Then Ibrahim would have departed, but the boy would not let go of him. His mother wailed aloud. Turning his face to heaven, Ibrahim cried, “O God, succour me!”

The boy immediately expired in his embrace.

“What happened, Ibrahim?” his companions cried out.

`’When I took him to my breast,” Ibrahim explained, “love for him stirred in my heart. A voice spoke to me, ‘Ibrahim, you claim to love Me, and you love another along with Me. You charge your companions not to look upon any strange woman or child, and you have attached your heart to that woman and child.’ When I heard this call, I prayed, ‘Lord of Glory, come to my succour! He will so occupy my heart that I shall forget to love Thee. Either take away his life or mine.’ His death was the answer to my prayer.”

Anecdotes of Ibrahim ibn Adham

One day Ibrahim ibn Adham was asked, “What befell you, that you quit your kingdom?”

“I was seated on my throne one day,” he recalled. “A mirror was held up before me; I looked into that mirror and saw that my lodging was the tomb and therein was no familiar friend. I saw a long journey ahead of me, and I had no provision. I saw a just judge, and I had no defence. I became disgusted of my kingship.’,

“Why did you flee from Khorasan?” they asked.

“I heard much talk there of the true friend,” he replied.

“Why do you not seek a wife?” he was asked.

“Does any woman take a husband for him to keep her hungry and naked?” he countered.

“No,” they replied.

“That is why I do not marry,” he explained. “Any woman whom I married would remain hungry and naked. If I only could, I would divorce myself. How can I bind another to my saddle?”

Then turning to a beggar who was present, he asked him “Do you have a wife?”

“No,” the beggar replied.

“Do you have a child?”

`’No.”

“Excellent, excellent,” Ibrahim exclaimed.

“Why do you say that?” asked the beggar.

“The beggar who marries embarks on a ship. When the children come, he is drowned.”

One day Ibrahim saw a beggar bewailing his lot.

“I guess you bought beggary gratis,” he remarked.

“Why, is beggary for sale?” the beggar asked in astonishment.

“Certainly,” Ibrahim replied. “I bought it with the kingdom of Balkh. I got a bargain.”

A man once brought Ibrahim a thousand dinars.

“Take,” he said.

“I do not accept anything from beggars,” Ibrahim replied “But I am wealthy,” the man retorted.

“Do you want more than you own already?” Ibrahim asked

“Indeed,” the man exclaimed.

“Then take it back,” said Ibrahim. “You are the chief of the beggars. Indeed, this is not beggary. This is plain penury.”

Ibrahim was told of an ecstatic youth who had extraordinary experiences and disciplined himself severely.

“Bring me to him so that I may see him,” he said.

They took him to the youth.

“Be my guest for three days,” the youth invited him.

Ibrahim stayed there and observed the youth’s state attentively. It surpassed even what his friends had said. All night he was sleepless and restless, not reposing or slumbering for a single moment. Ibrahim felt a certain jealousy.

“I am so frigid, and he is sleepless and unresting the whole night through. Come, let us investigate his case,” he said to himself. “Let us discover if anything from Satan has invaded his state, or whether it is wholly pure and in all respects as it should be. I must examine the foundation of the matter. The foundation and root of the matter is what a man eats.”

So he investigated what the youth was eating, and discovered that it came from unhallowed sources.

“God is most great. It is Satanic,” Ibrahim exclaimed.

“I have been your guest for three days,” he said to the youth. “Now you come and be my guest for forty days.”

The youth accepted. Now the food Ibrahim ate was earned by the labour of his own hands. He took the youth to his home and gave him of his own food. Immediately his ecstasy vanished. All his ardour and passion disappeared. That restlessness and sleeplessness and weeping of his departed.

“What have you done to me?” he cried.

“Yes,” Ibrahim answered. “Your food was unhallowed. Satan was all the time going and coming in you. As soon as you swallowed lawful food, the manifestations he had been contriving in you became revealed for what they were, the Devil’s work.”

Sahl ibn Ibrahim tells the following story. `

I was making a journey with Ibrahim-e Adham, and on the way I fell sick. He sold all that he possessed and spent it on me. I begged him for something, and he sold his ass and spent the proceeds on me.

“Where is the ass?” I enquired when I recovered.

“I sold it,” he replied.

“What shall I sit on?” I demanded.

“Brother,” Ibrahim answered, “come, sit on my back.”

And he lifted me on his back and carried me for three stages.

Every day Ibrahim went out to work for hire and laboured till night. All his earnings he expended on behalf of his companions. But by the time he had performed the evening prayer and bought something and had returned to his friends the night was far gone.

One night his companions said, “He is late in coming. Come, let us eat some bread and go to sleep. That will be a hint for him to return earlier in future. He will not keep us waiting so long.”

So they did. When Ibrahim returned he saw that they were asleep. Supposing that they had not eaten anything and had gone to sleep hungry, he at once lit a fire. He had brought a little flour back with him, so he made dough to give them something to eat when they woke, then they would be able to keep fast next day. His companions awoke to see him with his beard on the floor, blowing on the fire; tears were streaming from his eyes, and he was surrounded by smoke.

“What are you doing?” they asked.

“I saw you were asleep,” Ibrahim replied. “I said to myself, perhaps you could not find anything and went to sleep hungry. So I am making something for you to eat when you awake.”

“See how he thought about us, and how we thought about him,” they exclaimed.

“Since you entered on this path, have you ever experienced happiness?” Ibrahim was asked.

“Several times,” he replied. “Once I was on board ship and the captain did not know me. I was wearing ragged clothes my hair was untrimmed, and I was in a spiritual ecstasy of which all on board were unaware. They laughed at me and ridiculed me. There was a joker on the ship, and every now and then he would come and grab me by the hair and pluck it out and slap me on the neck. In those moments I felt that I had attained my desire, and was very happy to be so humiliated.

“Suddenly a great wave arose, and all feared that they would perish. ‘We must throw one of these fellows overboard,’ cried the helmsman. ‘Then the ship will be lighter.’ They seized me to throw me into the sea. The wave subsided, and the ship resumed an even keel. That moment when they took me by the ear to throw me into the water, I felt that I had attained my desire, and was happy.

“On another occasion I went to a mosque to sleep there. They would not let me be, and I was so weak and exhausted that I could not get up. So they seized me by the foot and dragged me out. Now the mosque had three steps; my head struck against each step in turn, and the blood flowed forth. I felt that I had attained my desire. On each step that they dropped me, the mystery of a whole clime became revealed to me. I said, ‘Would that the mosque had more steps, to increase my felicity!’

“On another occasion I was rapt in a state of ecstasy. A joker came and urinated on me. Then too I was happy.

“On yet another occasion I was wrapped in a fur jacket infested by fleas which devoured me unmercifully. Suddenly I remembered the fine clothes which I had deposited in the treasury. My soul cried within me, ‘Why, what pain is this?’ Then too I felt that I had attained my desire.”

“Once,” Ibrahim related, “I was journeying in the desert putting my trust in God. For some days I found nothing to eat. I remembered a friend of mine, but I said to myself, ‘If I go to him, my trust in God will become void.’ I entered a mosque with the words on my lips, ‘I have put my trust in the Living One who dies not. There is no God but He.’ A voice out of heaven cried, ‘Glory be to that God who has emptied the face of the earth of those who trust in Him.’ I said, ‘Why these words?’ The voice replied, ‘How should that man be truly trusting in God who undertakes a long journey for the sake o a morsel that a profane friend may give him, and then declare “I have put my trust in the Living One who dies not”? You have given the name of trust in God to a lie!’”

“Once I bought a slave,” Ibrahim recalled. “‘What is your name?’ I asked. “‘What you call me,’ he answered. “‘What do you eat?’ “‘What you give me.’ “‘What do you wear?’ “‘What you clothe me withal.’ “‘What do you do?’ “‘What you command.’ “‘What do you desire?’ I asked. “‘What has a servant to do with desire?’ he replied. “‘Wretch that you are,’ I said to myself, ‘all your life

you have been a servant of God. Well, now learn what it means to be a servant!’ “And I wept so long that I swooned away.”

No one had ever seen Ibrahim sitting crosslegged. “Why do you not sit crosslegged?” he was asked. “I did sit that way one day,” he replied. “I heard a

voice from the air saying, ‘Son of Adham, do servants sit so in the presence of their lords?’ I at once sat upright and repented.

“Once I was travelling in the desert trusting in God, Ibrahim related. “For three days I found nothing to eat. The Devil came to me.

“‘Did you abandon your kingdom and so much luxury in order to go on the pilgrimage hungry?’ the Devil taunted me. ‘You can also make the pilgrimage in style and not suffer so.

“Hearing this speech of the Devil, I lifted my head on high.

“‘O God,’ I cried, ‘dost Thou appoint Thy enemy over Thy friend to torture me? Come to my succour! For I cannot cross this desert without Thy aid.’

“‘Ibrahim,’ a voice came to me, ‘cast out what thou hast in thy pocket, that We may bring forth that which is in the Unseen.’

“I put my hand in my pocket. Four silver pennies were there which I had forgotten. As soon as I flung them away the Devil fled from me, and aliment materialized out of the Unseen.”

“Once,” Ibrahim recalled, “I was appointed to look after an orchard. The owner of the orchard came and said to me, ‘Bring me some sweet pomegranates.’ I brought some, but they were sour.

“‘Bring me sweet ones,’ the owner repeated. I brought another dishful, but they were also sour.

“‘Glory be to God!’ the owner cried. ‘You have spent so long in an orchard, and you do not know ripe pomegranates?’

“‘I look after your orchard, but I do not know what pomegranates taste like because I have never sampled any,’ I replied

“‘With such self-denial, I suspect you are Ibrahim-e Adham,’ the owner said.

“When I heard these words, I departed from that place.”

“One night,” Ibrahim related, ‘I saw Gabriel in a dream come down to earth out of heaven with a scroll in his hand.

“‘What do you want?’ I asked.

“‘I am writing down the names of the friends of God,’ Gabriel replied.

“‘Write down my name,’ I said.

“‘You are not of them,’ Gabriel answered.

“‘I am a friend of the friends of God,’ I rejoined.

“Gabriel pondered for a while. Then he said,

“‘The command has come. Inscribe Ibrahim’s name the first of all. For on this Path hope materializes out of despair.’”

Ibrahim was travelling in the desert one day when he was accosted by a soldier.

“What are you?” the soldier asked.

“A servant,” replied Ibrahim.

“Which is the way to habitation?” asked the soldier.

Ibrahim pointed to the graveyard.

“You are making fun of me,” shouted the soldier, lashing out at Ibrahim’s head. His head was broken, and the blood gushed forth.

The soldier put a rope round Ibrahim’s neck and dragged him along. People from the nearby town coming that way stopped at the spectacle.

“Ignoramus, this is Ibrahim-e Adham, the friend of God,” they cried.

The soldier fell at Ibrahim’s feet and implored him to pardon him and acquit him of the wrong he had done him.

“You told me you were a servant,” he pleaded.

“Who is there who is not a servant?” Ibrahim replied.

“I broke your head, and you prayed for me,” said the soldier.

“I prayed that you might be blessed for the way you treated me,” was Ibrahim’s answer. “My reward for the way you treated me was Paradise, and I did not wish that your reward should be Hell.”

“Why did you direct me to the cemetery when I asked the way to habitation?” the soldier asked.

“Because every day the graveyard becomes more thronged, and the city more deserted,” answered Ibrahim.

Once Ibrahim passed by a drunkard. His mouth was foul, so he fetched water and washed the drunkard’s mouth.

“Do you leave foul the mouth that has mouthed the name of God? That is irreverence!” Ibrahim said to himself.

“The ascetic of Khorasan washed your mouth,” they told the man when he woke.

“I too now repent,” the man declared.

After that Ibrahim heard in a dream, “Thou didst wash a mouth for My sake. I have washed thy heart.”

I was once on shipboard with Ibrahim (relates Raja) when suddenly a wind sprang up and the world grew dark.

“Alas, the ship is sinking!” I cried.

“Fear not that the ship will sink,” came a voice from the air. “Ibrahim-e Adham is with you.”

Immediately the wind subsided, and the darkened world became bright.

Ibrahim wished to embark on a ship, but he had no money.

“Every one must pay a dinar,” came the announcement.

Ibrahim prayed two rak’as, and said, “O God, they are demanding money from me and I have none.”

Forthwith the whole sea was turned to gold. Ibrahim gathered a handful and gave it to them.

One day Ibrahim was seated on the bank of the Tigris stitching his threadbare robe. His needle fell into the river.

“You gave up such a mighty kingdom. What did you get in return?” someone asked him.

“Give back my needle,” cried Ibrahim, pointing to the river.

A thousand fishes put up their heads from the water, each with a golden needle in its mouth.

“I want my own needle,” said Ibrahim.

A feeble little fish held up Ibrahim’s needle in its mouth.

“This is the least thing I have gotten by abandoning the kingdom of Balkh,” said Ibrahim. “The rest you know nothing of.”

One day Ibrahim came to a well. He let down the bucket, and it came up full of gold. He emptied it and let it down again, and it came up full of pearls. In merry mood he emptied it once more.

“O God,” he cried, “Thou art offering me a treasury. I know that Thou art all-powerful, and Thou knowest that I shall not be deluded by this. Give me water, that I may make my ablution.”

Once Ibrahim was going on the pilgrimage in company.

“Not one of us has a camel or any provisions,” said his fellow-pilgrims.

“Rely on God to provide for you,” Ibrahim told them.

Then he added, “Look at those trees! If it is gold that you desire, they will be turned to gold.”

All the acacias had turned to gold by the Power of Almighty God.

One day Ibrahim was travelling with a party when they came to a fort. Before the fort was much brushwood.

“We will pass the night here,” they said. “There is plenty of brushwood, so we can make a fire.”

They kindled a fire and sat in the light of the flames. All ate dry bread, whilst Ibrahim stood in prayer.

“If only we had some hallowed meat to roast on this fire,” said one.

Ibrahim finished his prayer. Then he said, “God is certainly able to give you hallowed meat.”

Saying this, he stood once more in prayer. Immediately came the roar of a lion. They watched as a lion approached dragging a wild ass. They took the ass, roasted it and ate it, whilst the lion crouched there watching them.