He was counted among the devout worshipers. Jubayr ibn Nufayr transmitted reports from him. He was killed at the Battle of Ṣiffīn while fighting on Muʿāwiyah’s side.
Dhu al-Kalāʿ al-Ḥimyarī—whose given name was al-Sumayfaʿ, though some said Sumayfaʿ ibn Nakūr and others Ayfaḥ—was known by the kunya Abū Shuraḥbīl. He embraced Islam during the Prophet’s lifetime, and some even claimed that he was a Companion. Ibn Lahiʿah narrated, through Kaʿb ibn ʿAlqamah from Ḥassān ibn Kulayb, that he heard Dhu al-Kalāʿ say, “I heard the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, say: ‘Leave the Turks alone so long as they leave you alone.’”
Dhu al-Kalāʿ was the chieftain of his clan; he fought at Yarmūk, took part in the conquest of Damascus, and commanded the right wing of Muʿāwiyah’s forces at Ṣiffīn. He narrated from ʿUmar, among others, and those who transmitted from him include Abū Azhar ibn Saʿīd, Zāmil ibn ʿAmr, and Abū Nūḥ al-Ḥimyarī.
The evidence that he never actually met the Prophet is the report related by Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Khālid, from Qays, from Jarīr, who said: “I was in Yemen when I met two men of that land—Dhu al-Kalāʿ and Dhu ʿAmr. I began telling them what I had heard from the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, and they set out with me. When we were somewhere along the road, a caravan coming from Madinah appeared. We asked them for news, and they replied, ‘The Prophet has passed away and Abū Bakr has been appointed caliph.’” This ḥadīth is recorded by Muslim.
ʿAlwān ibn Dāwūd transmitted—from an unnamed man—who said: “My family sent me with a gift to Dhu al-Kalāʿ. I remained at his gate for a full year without gaining audience. Then one day he appeared on a balcony; everyone around him fell prostrate. He ordered that my gift be accepted. I later saw him after he had entered Islam: he had bought meat for a single dirham and was roasting it while seated on his horse.”
It is also related that when Dhu al-Kalāʿ arrived in Mecca he would veil his face, fearing that someone might be lured into temptation