“Generosity has fallen captive to your sway—together with forbearance, cultured learning, and lofty orations;
You are no braggart when favors come in succession, yet in affliction you endure with patient trust.”

Yazīd said, “What business have we with you, man?”
He replied, “I found you inexpensive, so I wished to pay you in advance.”
Yazīd then asked his attendant, “How much spending money do you have with you?”
He answered, “About ten thousand dirhams.”
Yazīd ordered, “Hand it over to him.” (1)

Yazīd campaigned against Ṭabaristān, routed the Ispahbud (2), and then made peace with them for 700,000 and for 400 loads of saffron.

The people of Jurjān later violated the treaty. He besieged them for a time, stormed the city, crucified people along a stretch of two parasangs, and captured 12,000 of them, after which he had their heads struck off on the bank of the Jurjān River until a mill turned with their blood.

He was a man of conceit and arrogance. Muṭarrif ibn al-Shikhkhīr saw him trailing his robe and said, “This is a gait that Allah detests.”
Yazīd retorted, “Do you not know who I am?”
He replied, “Indeed: your beginning is a despised drop of fluid, your end a putrid corpse, and in between you carry excrement.” (3)

From him is also related: “Life is dearer to me than death, and good praise is dearer to me than life.”

He was asked, “Will you not build a house for yourself?”
He answered, “No. If I remain in office, the governor’s residence suffices; and if I am removed, the prison will suffice.”