In the cation of the title compound, C(12)H(15)N(4) (+)·C(7)H(6)NO(2) (-), the benzene ring makes dihedral angles of 30.51 (9) and 25.64 (9)° with the imidazole and imidazolinium rings, respectively. In the crystal, inter-molecular N-H⋯O and N-H⋯N hydrogen-bonding inter-actions link the mol-ecules into a three-dimensional network.