[8] Although Rav Huna was related to the family of the exilarch[9] he was so poor at the beginning of his career that in order to buy wine to consecrate the Shabbat he had to pawn his girdle.

[11] He owned numerous flocks of sheep, which were under the special care of his wife, Hobah,[12] and he traveled in a gilded litter.

[15] Under Huna the academy increased considerably in importance, and students flocked to it from all directions; during his presidency their number reached 800, all supported by himself.

[17] Under Rav Huna, Palestine lost its ascendency over Babylonia; and on certain occasions he declared the schools of the two countries to be equal.

Other pupils of his whose names are given were: Abba bar Zavda, Rav Giddel, R. Helbo, R. Sheshet, Yiṣḥaq b. Ḥanina,[20] and Huna's own son, Rabbah.

He was not ashamed, before he was rich, to cultivate his field himself, nor to return home in the evening with his spade on his shoulder.

[23] He patiently bore Rav's hard words, because the latter was his teacher,[24] but he showed on several occasions that a scholar must not humiliate himself in presence of an inferior.

[33] Many of his aggadot, showing his skill in Biblical exegesis, are found in the Babylonian Talmud, some in the name of Rav, some in his own.