diff --git a/core/src/main/java/org/apache/iceberg/hadoop/HadoopCatalog.java b/core/src/main/java/org/apache/iceberg/hadoop/HadoopCatalog.java
index 68797927e269..97e1ecaacadc 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/org/apache/iceberg/hadoop/HadoopCatalog.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/org/apache/iceberg/hadoop/HadoopCatalog.java
@@ -23,18 +23,19 @@
 import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.UncheckedIOException;
+import java.nio.file.AccessDeniedException;
+import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.Arrays;
 import java.util.List;
 import java.util.Map;
 import java.util.Set;
-import java.util.stream.Collectors;
-import java.util.stream.Stream;
 import org.apache.hadoop.conf.Configurable;
 import org.apache.hadoop.conf.Configuration;
 import org.apache.hadoop.fs.FileStatus;
 import org.apache.hadoop.fs.FileSystem;
 import org.apache.hadoop.fs.Path;
 import org.apache.hadoop.fs.PathFilter;
+import org.apache.hadoop.fs.RemoteIterator;
 import org.apache.iceberg.BaseMetastoreCatalog;
 import org.apache.iceberg.CatalogProperties;
 import org.apache.iceberg.CatalogUtil;
@@ -170,7 +171,9 @@ public String name() {
 
   private boolean shouldSuppressPermissionError(IOException ioException) {
     if (suppressPermissionError) {
-      return ioException.getMessage() != null && ioException.getMessage().contains("AuthorizationPermissionMismatch");
+      return ioException instanceof AccessDeniedException ||
+              (ioException.getMessage() != null &&
+                      ioException.getMessage().contains("AuthorizationPermissionMismatch"));
     }
     return false;
   }
@@ -220,14 +223,15 @@ public List<TableIdentifier> listTables(Namespace namespace) {
       if (!isDirectory(nsPath)) {
         throw new NoSuchNamespaceException("Namespace does not exist: %s", namespace);
       }
-
-      for (FileStatus s : fs.listStatus(nsPath)) {
-        if (!s.isDirectory()) {
+      RemoteIterator<FileStatus> it = fs.listStatusIterator(nsPath);
+      while (it.hasNext()) {
+        FileStatus status = it.next();
+        if (!status.isDirectory()) {
           // Ignore the path which is not a directory.
           continue;
         }
 
-        Path path = s.getPath();
+        Path path = status.getPath();
         if (isTableDir(path)) {
           TableIdentifier tblIdent = TableIdentifier.of(namespace, path.getName());
           tblIdents.add(tblIdent);
@@ -329,11 +333,17 @@ public List<Namespace> listNamespaces(Namespace namespace) {
     }
 
     try {
-      return Stream.of(fs.listStatus(nsPath))
-        .map(FileStatus::getPath)
-        .filter(this::isNamespace)
-        .map(path -> append(namespace, path.getName()))
-        .collect(Collectors.toList());
+      // using the iterator listing allows for paged downloads
+      // from HDFS and prefetching from object storage.
+      List<Namespace> namespaces = new ArrayList<>();
+      RemoteIterator<FileStatus> it = fs.listStatusIterator(nsPath);
+      while (it.hasNext()) {
+        Path path = it.next().getPath();
+        if (isNamespace(path)) {
+          namespaces.add(append(namespace, path.getName()));
+        }
+      }
+      return namespaces;
     } catch (IOException ioe) {
       throw new RuntimeIOException(ioe, "Failed to list namespace under: %s", namespace);
     }
diff --git a/core/src/test/java/org/apache/iceberg/hadoop/TestHadoopCatalog.java b/core/src/test/java/org/apache/iceberg/hadoop/TestHadoopCatalog.java
index 64ae92e77caa..08fa022a0ab4 100644
--- a/core/src/test/java/org/apache/iceberg/hadoop/TestHadoopCatalog.java
+++ b/core/src/test/java/org/apache/iceberg/hadoop/TestHadoopCatalog.java
@@ -262,13 +262,13 @@ public void testListTables() throws Exception {
 
     List<TableIdentifier> tbls1 = catalog.listTables(Namespace.of("db"));
     Set<String> tblSet = Sets.newHashSet(tbls1.stream().map(t -> t.name()).iterator());
-    Assert.assertEquals(tblSet.size(), 2);
+    Assert.assertEquals(2, tblSet.size());
     Assert.assertTrue(tblSet.contains("tbl1"));
     Assert.assertTrue(tblSet.contains("tbl2"));
 
     List<TableIdentifier> tbls2 = catalog.listTables(Namespace.of("db", "ns1"));
-    Assert.assertEquals(tbls2.size(), 1);
-    Assert.assertTrue(tbls2.get(0).name().equals("tbl3"));
+    Assert.assertEquals("table identifiers", 1, tbls2.size());
+    Assert.assertEquals("table name", "tbl3", tbls2.get(0).name());
 
     AssertHelpers.assertThrows("should throw exception", NoSuchNamespaceException.class,
         "Namespace does not exist: ", () -> {
@@ -337,24 +337,24 @@ public void testListNamespace() throws Exception {
 
     List<Namespace> nsp1 = catalog.listNamespaces(Namespace.of("db"));
     Set<String> tblSet = Sets.newHashSet(nsp1.stream().map(t -> t.toString()).iterator());
-    Assert.assertEquals(tblSet.size(), 3);
+    Assert.assertEquals(3, tblSet.size());
     Assert.assertTrue(tblSet.contains("db.ns1"));
     Assert.assertTrue(tblSet.contains("db.ns2"));
     Assert.assertTrue(tblSet.contains("db.ns3"));
 
     List<Namespace> nsp2 = catalog.listNamespaces(Namespace.of("db", "ns1"));
-    Assert.assertEquals(nsp2.size(), 1);
+    Assert.assertEquals(1, nsp2.size());
     Assert.assertTrue(nsp2.get(0).toString().equals("db.ns1.ns2"));
 
     List<Namespace> nsp3 = catalog.listNamespaces();
     Set<String> tblSet2 = Sets.newHashSet(nsp3.stream().map(t -> t.toString()).iterator());
-    Assert.assertEquals(tblSet2.size(), 2);
+    Assert.assertEquals(2, tblSet2.size());
     Assert.assertTrue(tblSet2.contains("db"));
     Assert.assertTrue(tblSet2.contains("db2"));
 
     List<Namespace> nsp4 = catalog.listNamespaces();
     Set<String> tblSet3 = Sets.newHashSet(nsp4.stream().map(t -> t.toString()).iterator());
-    Assert.assertEquals(tblSet3.size(), 2);
+    Assert.assertEquals(2, tblSet3.size());
     Assert.assertTrue(tblSet3.contains("db"));
     Assert.assertTrue(tblSet3.contains("db2"));