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Islam remembers the pious traditionist, Muhammad b. Sirin, who died in Basra 110/728, as an authority on dream-interpretation. His high religious standing induced later authors on that subject to publish their works under his name, so as to protect their science by the saintly reputation of its alleged propounder.1 While, for this reason, we cannot be sure that the specimens of his interpretative abilities are genuine they undoubtedly prove the keen intuition of the age which thought them worthy of preservation.
Zakariyyâ’ b. Muhammad al-Qazwînî (ob. 1283) when discussing the biographies of famous Basrians in his “Cosmography” devotes a short paragraph to Muhammad b. Sîrîn and includes three sayings of his explaining dreams. The first is obviously nothing but a literary reminiscence of Matthew 7.6. The other two, however, are noteworthy: The last one in particular in which Ibn Sîrîn with truly amazing perspicacity recognizes the incest committed by the author of the dream. The introductory anecdote may be valuable to illustrate the character of the pious psychologist.
“(Another Basrian of mark was Muhammad b. Sîrîn, a client of Anas b. Mâlik.) He was a handsome youth, a cloth-merchant by profession. A woman of the royal household asked him for garments. When he brought the garments to her house, she wished to seduce him.2 He said: Give me a little time to satisfy a need, for I am suffering from retention of urine. So he retired to the outhouse and soiled all his body with filth. When she saw him in this condition she felt disgust and asked him to leave her house. It is related that he once saw Joseph in his sleep and said to him: O Prophet of God, your case with those women is a wondrous thing. Whereupon Joseph told him: And so is yours.
“Allâh gave him the knowledge of dream-interpretation. A man came to him and said: I saw in my dream as if I hung jewels on