“All-Glorious, All-Holy!”

He had uttered it in ridicule, so al-Sulayhī ordered that he be seized (1). In the end he did capture Aden, ascended its pulpit to preach, and made the city the seat of his throne. He built several elegant palaces, took kings prisoner, and his days were long. Later he performed the Pilgrimage and dealt generously with the people of Mecca.

He was fair-complexioned and blue-eyed, greeting everyone he met. A man of keen intellect and guile, he draped the Kaʿbah in white, and the Friday sermon was delivered in his wife’s name as well (2) from the pulpits. His horse was valued at one thousand dinars; he rode out with bands of retainers wearing head-bands, while al-Hurrah rode in the midst of two hundred slave-girls adorned with jewelry and fine garments, accompanied by spare mounts (3) fitted with golden saddles.

He again set out on pilgrimage in the year 473 AH, leaving his son Aḥmad al-Malik al-Mukarram to govern Yemen. When he reached al-Mahjam (4), Jayyāsh ibn Najāḥ and his brother Saʿīd al-Aḥwal attacked him and killed him to avenge their father. They had marched with seventy men, unarmed save for palm-rib shafts tipped with iron points. They headed toward the coast, so he mustered five thousand to fight them, but their routes crossed unexpectedly. The seventy reached al-Sulayhī’s encampment, worn out and barefoot, and the people assumed they were camp servants. Al-Sulayhī’s brother sensed the danger, entered the pavilion, and said, “Mount—this is Saʿīd al-Aḥwal!”

Al-Sulayhī replied, “I shall die only on al-Duhaym (5).”

Someone exclaimed, “Defend yourself—for by Allah, this is al-Duhaym!”

The panic of death seized him; he lost control of himself, and before long his head was cut off with his own sword. His brother ʿAbd Allāh and other relatives were also killed, and this occurred in Dhu al-Qaʿdah of the year—