Looks like this function has exactly the same behavior as base64_decode($test, true) -> it returns FALSE if $text contains characters outside the Base64 alphabet, although this isn't documented here.
(PHP 4, PHP 5, PHP 7)
imap_base64 — Decode BASE64 encoded text
$text
) : string
Decodes the given BASE-64 encoded text.
textThe encoded text
Returns the decoded message as a string.
Looks like this function has exactly the same behavior as base64_decode($test, true) -> it returns FALSE if $text contains characters outside the Base64 alphabet, although this isn't documented here.