The Sultan then rode back to his camp, blood still running down his cheek. He withdrew into a wooden pavilion and reviewed the army, dismissing every man whose face he did not recognize.
Al-Muwaffaq ʿAbd al-Laṭīf relates: “I came while Ṣalāḥ al-Din was in Jerusalem and saw a king who filled the eyes with awe and the hearts with love—near yet exalted, gentle and beloved. His companions modeled themselves on him, vying with one another in good works, just as the Almighty says: ‘We shall remove whatever rancor is in their breasts, and they will be brothers’ (Q 15:47).
“On the first night I attended his court I found the hall crowded with scholars exchanging ideas. He listened keenly, joined the discussion, and then spoke about how to raise defensive walls and dig moats, contributing a novel insight to every topic.
“He was wholly absorbed in building the walls of the Holy City and excavating its moat. He oversaw the work himself, carrying stones on his own shoulder. People followed his lead—even al-Qāḍī al-Fāḍil and al-ʿImād—until midday, when the table was spread and they rested. He would mount again in the late afternoon and return by torch-light.
“One of the craftsmen said to him, ‘The stones being quarried from the bottom of the moat are soft.’ He replied, ‘Stones that lie close to the water and the damp are always like that; once the sun strikes them, they harden.’
“He had memorized al-Hamāsa (Abū Tammām’s anthology of heroic verse) and assumed that every jurist had done the same. Whenever he recited and then paused he invited others to finish the line, but none could. This happened with al-Qāḍī al-Fāḍil, who did not know it; he left and did not rest until he too had learnt it by heart.
“Ṣalāḥ al-Din assigned me a stipend of thirty dinars a month and granted allowances to my children, but I was occupied with teaching in the Great Mosque of Damascus.
“His father was a righteous man, and Ṣalāḥ al-Din was not his eldest son.
“While Ṣalāḥ al-Din was serving as the military governor (shiḥna) of Damascus he used to drink wine, but he later repented. He was dear to Nūr al-Din, who would play ball with him.”