diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index ecf2d23..1304c83 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 * Added an [ASV](https://asv.readthedocs.io/en/stable/) benchmark suite under `benchmarks/` and a `benchmark` optional dependency group [gh-184](https://github.com/IntelPython/mkl_random/pull/184)
 
 ### Changed
+* Unrecognized `method` values (e.g. a misspelled name, `None`, `bool`, `float`) now emit a `UserWarning` before falling back to the function's default method, instead of falling back silently [gh-189](https://github.com/IntelPython/mkl_random/pull/189)
 * Sped up `normal`, `uniform`, `exponential`, `laplace`, `gumbel`, `logistic`, `rayleigh` and `lognormal` for array-valued parameters. Seeded results change for these array paths; scalar paths are unchanged [gh-171](https://github.com/IntelPython/mkl_random/pull/171)
 * Array parameters for these distributions must broadcast to the requested `size` without adding dimensions; previously accepted mismatches now raise `ValueError` [gh-171](https://github.com/IntelPython/mkl_random/pull/171)
 * `uniform` with array-valued bounds may return `high` due to floating-point rounding [gh-171](https://github.com/IntelPython/mkl_random/pull/171)
@@ -27,6 +28,8 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 * Reduced the memory use and sped up integer generation with `WH`, `MCG31`, `R250` and `MRG32K3A`, which lack `viRngUniformBits` support [gh-178](https://github.com/IntelPython/mkl_random/pull/178)
 
 ### Fixed
+* Fixed `multinormal_cholesky` and the other functions taking `method` routing integer-like ids such as `np.int64(0)`, `np.int64(2)` or `False` to `BoxMuller`; NumPy integers now select the method they name [gh-189](https://github.com/IntelPython/mkl_random/pull/189)
+* Fixed `multinormal_cholesky` raising `ZeroDivisionError` for an empty `mean`; it now raises `ValueError` [gh-189](https://github.com/IntelPython/mkl_random/pull/189)
 * Fixed an out-of-range integer `brng` indexing `brng_list` past its end, which returned uninitialized memory as random values; it now warns and falls back to `MT19937` [gh-177](https://github.com/IntelPython/mkl_random/pull/177)
 * Fixed `brng=0` being treated as unset, which left the state unseeded [gh-177](https://github.com/IntelPython/mkl_random/pull/177)
 * Fixed `MKLRandomState(seed, brng=None)` reading past `brng_list` and returning uninitialized memory; it now uses `MT19937` [gh-177](https://github.com/IntelPython/mkl_random/pull/177)
diff --git a/mkl_random/mklrand.pyx b/mkl_random/mklrand.pyx
index 959b7bf..e9d1e9e 100644
--- a/mkl_random/mklrand.pyx
+++ b/mkl_random/mklrand.pyx
@@ -1650,18 +1650,43 @@ _method_alias_dict_poisson = {
 }
 
 
+_method_names = {
+    ICDF: "ICDF",
+    BOXMULLER: "BoxMuller",
+    BOXMULLER2: "BoxMuller2",
+    POISNORM: "POISNORM",
+    PTPE: "PTPE",
+}
+
+
 def choose_method(method, mlist, alias_dict = None):
-    if (method not in mlist):
-        if (alias_dict is None) or (not isinstance(alias_dict, dict)):
-            # issue warning
-            return mlist[0]
+    """
+    Resolve ``method`` to one of the module-level method constants in
+    ``mlist``. Callers compare the result with ``is``, so the constant itself
+    is returned, never an equal-valued object such as ``np.int64(2)``.
+    Unrecognized values, including ``bool`` and ``float``, which compare
+    equal to the integer constants, warn and fall back to ``mlist[0]``.
+    """
+    if isinstance(method, str):
+        if isinstance(alias_dict, dict) and method in alias_dict:
+            return alias_dict[method]
+    elif not isinstance(method, (bool, np.bool_)):
+        try:
+            index = operator.index(method)
+        except TypeError:
+            pass
         else:
-            if method not in alias_dict.keys():
-                return mlist[0]
-            else:
-                return alias_dict[method]
-    else:
-        return method
+            for candidate in mlist:
+                if candidate == index:
+                    return candidate
+
+    default = mlist[0]
+    warnings.warn(
+        f"The sampling method {method!r} is not recognized. "
+        f"\"{_method_names[default]}\" will be used instead",
+        UserWarning
+    )
+    return default
 
 
 _brng_dict = {
@@ -7409,6 +7434,8 @@ cdef class MKLRandomState(_MKLRandomState):
         if marr.ndim != 1:
             raise ValueError("mean must be 1 dimensional")
         dim = marr.shape[0]
+        if dim < 1:
+            raise ValueError("mean must have at least one element")
         if (tarr.ndim == 2):
             storage_mode = MATRIX
             if (tarr.shape[0] != tarr.shape[1]):
diff --git a/mkl_random/tests/test_random.py b/mkl_random/tests/test_random.py
index 89050da..8a55c0c 100644
--- a/mkl_random/tests/test_random.py
+++ b/mkl_random/tests/test_random.py
@@ -1001,9 +1001,11 @@ def test_randomdist_lognormal(randomdist):
         ]
     )
     np.testing.assert_allclose(actual, desired, atol=1e-6, rtol=1e-10)
-    actual = rnd.lognormal(
-        mean=0.123456789, sigma=2.0, size=(3, 2), method="Box-Muller2"
-    )
+    # lognormal only supports ICDF and BoxMuller, so this falls back to ICDF
+    with pytest.warns(UserWarning, match="not recognized"):
+        actual = rnd.lognormal(
+            mean=0.123456789, sigma=2.0, size=(3, 2), method="Box-Muller2"
+        )
     desired = np.array(
         [
             [0.2585388231094821, 0.43734953048924663],
@@ -1490,6 +1492,55 @@ def test_normal_family_array_methods(name, method, normal_method, size):
     )
 
 
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("ch", [np.zeros((0, 0)), np.zeros(0)])
+def test_multinormal_cholesky_empty_mean(ch):
+    with pytest.raises(ValueError, match="at least one element"):
+        rnd.MKLRandomState(123).multinormal_cholesky(np.array([]), ch, size=3)
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("method", ["ICDF", "BoxMuller", "BoxMuller2"])
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("to_int", [int, np.int64, np.uint8])
+def test_multinormal_cholesky_integer_method(method, to_int):
+    # Integer-like method ids must select the same method as the name.
+    ids = {"ICDF": 0, "BoxMuller": 1, "BoxMuller2": 2}
+    mean = np.array([0.1, -0.2])
+    chol_mat = np.array([[1.0, 0.0], [-0.5, 1.0]])
+    expected = rnd.MKLRandomState(123).multinormal_cholesky(
+        mean, chol_mat, size=8, method=method
+    )
+    with warnings.catch_warnings():
+        warnings.simplefilter("error")
+        actual = rnd.MKLRandomState(123).multinormal_cholesky(
+            mean, chol_mat, size=8, method=to_int(ids[method])
+        )
+    np.testing.assert_array_equal(actual, expected)
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize(
+    "method", ["bogus", 7, -1, 1.0, None, False, True, [1]]
+)
+def test_unrecognized_method_warns_and_uses_default(method):
+    # bool and float compare equal to the integer method ids, but are not
+    # valid method specifications.
+    mean = np.array([0.1, -0.2])
+    chol_mat = np.array([[1.0, 0.0], [-0.5, 1.0]])
+    expected = rnd.MKLRandomState(123).multinormal_cholesky(
+        mean, chol_mat, size=8, method="ICDF"
+    )
+    with pytest.warns(UserWarning, match="not recognized"):
+        actual = rnd.MKLRandomState(123).multinormal_cholesky(
+            mean, chol_mat, size=8, method=method
+        )
+    np.testing.assert_array_equal(actual, expected)
+
+
+def test_unrecognized_method_uses_each_functions_default():
+    expected = rnd.MKLRandomState(123).poisson(3.0, size=8, method="POISNORM")
+    with pytest.warns(UserWarning, match="POISNORM"):
+        actual = rnd.MKLRandomState(123).poisson(3.0, size=8, method="bogus")
+    np.testing.assert_array_equal(actual, expected)
+
+
 @pytest.mark.parametrize(
     "name,draw,p",
     [