Another treatise attributed by him is "Vasishta Samhita" - a book on Vedic system of electional astrology. Vasishta is featured in many tales and folklore, a few of which are briefly described below. In the Ramayana Vasishta appears as the court sage of king Dasharatha. The tale of Vashistha Sage Vashistha was Ram's guru and the Rajpurohit of Ikshwaku dynasty. He was a peace-loving, selfless, intelligent and great Rishi.

He had established Gurukula (residential college) on the banks of the river beas, where he and his wife Arundhati were taking care of thousands of students. Vashistha was the Sadguru of his time, possessing 20 "kala's" (divine arts) and had complete knowledge of the whole cosmos and the god.

Many of his Shlokas are found in Vedas as well. Vashistha summons Kamadhenu alias Sabala, the cow of abundance, to provide for a feast Vasishta possessed a cow named Nandini daughter of Kamadhenu who could instantly produce food enough for a whole army. The king Kaushika (later called Vishwamitra), who visited Vashistha's hermitage, was very impressed with the cow and tried to take it away from Vashistha by force, but Kamadhenu/Nandini's spiritual power was too great for him.

After being unable to conquer Nandini, Vishwamitra decided to acquire power himself through penance like Vashistha. He gained much power and many divine weapons from Shiva. Once again he attempted to conquer Kamadhenu/Nandini. But even the divine weapons he acquired could not defeat the power of Kamadhenu/Nandini. Vishwamitra finally decided to become a Brahmarishi himself, he renounced all his possessions and luxury and led the life of a simple forest ascetic.