Ibn al-Muʿtazz said: “The finest of his poetry is the Lamiyyah, a qasīdah that placed him above all the poets of his day when he praised Maʿn ibn Zāʾidah, who in return rewarded him with an enormous sum of money.

He also said: ‘He once received from a caliph three-hundred thousand dirhams for a single line of verse.’

I say: Among the Lamiyyah (1) are the following lines:

‘The sons of Maṭar, on the day of combat, are like lions whose cubs lie in the valley of Khaffān;
They guard a neighbour so well that it is as though his dwelling were set between the two Simāks;
He has so avoided the word “no” in speech (2) that it seems forbidden for him to utter “no” when he is asked;
His two days have grown alike to us, leaving us perplexed—so we do not know which of the two is the better:
Is it the day of his open-handed bounty, or the day of his valour in battle? Each of them is radiant and distinguished.
They became magnates in Islam, though none of them had been foremost in the Age of Ignorance (3);
They are a people who, when they speak, are right; when they are called, they respond; when they give, they give wholesomely and in plenty;
No one else can attain the deeds they perform, even if others excel in calamities and act with grace.’

It is related that a son of Marwān ibn Abī Ḥafṣah entered upon the emir Sharahīl ibn Maʿn and recited to him:

‘O Sharahīl, son of Maʿn ibn Zāʾidah,
O noblest of men, both non-Arab and Arab!
Your father gave my father wealth by which he lived;
so grant me the like of what your father gave mine.
Never did my father alight in a land where your father was present without his giving him a qintār of gold. (4)’