Hazrat Ali bin Abdur Rahman says that Abdullah bin Umar (may Allah be pleased with them) saw me playing with pebbles during prayer. When I finished the prayer, he forbade me and said: Do as the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) used to do. I asked: How did he do? He said: When he (peace and blessings be upon him) sat in prayer, he would place his right palm on his right thigh and close all the fingers, and point with the index finger, and place the left palm on the left thigh, and he (peace and blessings be upon him) used to do like this.

It is narrated from Abdullah bin Dinar that a man prayed next to Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Umar (may Allah be pleased with them). When that man sat after four rak'ahs, he sat cross-legged and wrapped both his feet. When Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Umar (may Allah be pleased with them) finished the prayer, he criticized this act. The man replied: "You do this yourself." He said: "I am ill."

It is narrated from Hazrat Mughira bin Hakim that he saw Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Umar (may Allah be pleased with them) sitting between the two prostrations on the toes of both feet, and then he would go into prostration. When he finished the prayer, this was mentioned, so Sayyiduna Abdullah (may Allah be pleased with him) said that sitting like this in prayer is not correct, but I sit like this due to illness.

It is narrated from Ubaidullah bin Abdullah bin Umar that he saw Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both) sitting cross-legged in prayer, so he also sat cross-legged, and he was young in those days. Then Sayyiduna Abdullah (may Allah be pleased with him) forbade him and said that the Sunnah in prayer is to keep the right foot upright and lay the left foot flat. Ubaidullah said that I said to him: You sit cross-legged. Sayyiduna Abdullah (may Allah be pleased with him) replied: My feet cannot bear my weight.

Yahya ibn Sa'id narrated that Qasim ibn Muhammad taught people how to sit in Tashahhud: he would raise the right foot, bend the left foot, and sit on the left buttock, and not on the left foot. Qasim said that 'Ubaydullah taught him to sit in this manner, and said that his father, our master 'Abdullah ibn 'Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both), used to do likewise.