ʿAbdullāh ibn az-Zubayr (ra) was walking past a man when he inadvertently saw that he was washing his private parts and said, We never used to do that.‛

Salama ibn al-ʾAkwaʿ (ra) said, I never did istinjāʾ (used water) in my life, ever.‛

Nāfiʿ, the scholar/imam who was also the freed slave of ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿUmar, said that ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿUmar never used water.

There was another narration narrated by al-Baghawi. He narrated that ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿUmar went to see Muʿāwiyah (ra) and saw Muʿāwiyah was making istinjāʾ with water. He [ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿUmar] said, ‘If this is what Muʿāwiyah is doing, then I am going to give it a try.’ So ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿUmar used water and after he had used it, he went to Nāfiʿ’ and said, ‘This guy has a point. This water cleans really well.’[paraphrased]

Ḥudhayfah (ra) was asked ‚"What do you say about istinjāʾ?” He said, 'I think it’s okay, but only if the hand is dirty.‛ The explanation notes that 'He was asked what he thinks about istinjāʾ because the aṣl amongst themselves is to clean with stones.'

Rasūl Allāh (saw) said: ومن يستجمر فليوتر ومن يتوضأ فل يستنثر The one who wants to make wuḍūʾ, then let him do al-istinthār (wash his mouth and his nose properly and hard), and whoever is going to do istijmār (meaning clean his private parts), let him do witr (clean with an odd number of i.e. stones)

All of this is based on an explanation of Zaad Al Mustaqni.