Ibn Abī ʿAblah said, “May Allah have mercy on al-Walīd! Where can one find the like of al-Walīd? He opened the lands of India and al-Andalus, and he would hand over silver bowls; I would divide them among the Quran-reciters. (1)

It is also reported that, while delivering a sermon from the pulpit, he recited the words yā laytuhā with a ḍamma on the pronoun. (2) In his temperament there was harshness and domineering force, yet he shouldered the responsibilities of the caliphate: he assigned stipends to jurists, orphans, the chronically ill, and the weak, and he kept affairs under firm control—may Allah pardon him.

Ibn ʿAsākir has collected his reports at length. (3)

He died in Jumādā al-Ākhirah of the year 96 AH, at the age of fifty-one. He held the caliphate for ten years, less four months, and his grave is at Bāb al-Ṣaghīr.

After him his brother Sulaymān assumed power, in accordance with a covenant their father ʿAbd al-Malik had made. Al-Walīd had resolved to depose Sulaymān from the succession in favor of his own son ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, but ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz refused, saying, “Our pledge of allegiance is already owed to Sulaymān.” Al-Walīd seized him and walled him in, then released him after three days, by which time his neck had fallen limp. Some say he strangled him with a kerchief until their sister Umm al-Banīn cried out. Sulaymān later thanked ʿUmar for his stance and designated him as the next caliph.

A lengthy biography of al-Walīd appears in Tāʾrīkh Dimashq and elsewhere.

121 – Muḥammad ibn Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ Mālik al-Zuhri * (Kh, M, T, S, Q)
The Imām, the reliable authority, Abū al-Qāsim al-Qurashī, al-Zuhri, al-Madani; brother of ʿUmar ibn Saʿīd the governor, ʿĀmir ibn Saʿd, and ʿĀʾishah bint Saʿd.