Al-Muwaffaq said: When his treasury was examined after his death, it contained only one dinar and thirty dirhams. Whenever he besieged a town and had it within his grasp, only for its people to ask him for safe-conduct, he granted it to them—much to the distress of his troops, who lamented the loss of their share.

Judge Bahāʾ al-Dīn Ibn Shaddād (1) related: During one of our discussions about concluding a truce, the Sultan said to me, “I fear that I might agree to peace, not knowing what will come of me thereafter. The enemy could grow stronger; they still possess territory and may march out to reclaim what is now in Muslim hands, while each one of these men”—meaning his brother and his brother’s sons—“will be sitting atop his own hill”—that is, in his fortress—saying, ‘I will not come down,’ and the Muslims will be destroyed.”

Ibn Shaddād added: “By Allah, events unfolded exactly as he foretold. They disagreed, each man became absorbed in his own district and withdrew, and in the end the truce turned out to be beneficial.”

I say: It was out of Allah’s grace that when the Ayyūbids quarreled and split, He diminished the enemy’s resolve, and that former valor vanished from them.

Al-Qāḍī al-Fāḍil wrote a letter of condolence to the ruler of Aleppo (2):
“Indeed, in the Messenger of Allah you have an excellent example” (al-Aḥzāb 33:21),
“Surely the quake of the Hour is a tremendous thing” (al-Ḥajj 22:1).
“I have written to our master al-Malik (3) al-Ẓāhir—may Allah grant him the best of consolation, mend his loss, and appoint in him a successor worthy of those who have gone before—immediately at this very hour (4). The Muslims have been shaken with a severe shaking; tears have already filled the eyes and have reached—"