Abu Tammam’s Dīwān is both substantial and widely circulated. When he died, the vizier Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Malik lamented him, saying:

A piece of news descended, shaking the very entrails,
​ for it came among the gravest of reports;
They said, “Ḥabīb now lies in the grave.” I answered,
​ “I adjure you—do not call him merely al-Ṭāʾī.” (1)

The vizier al-Ḥasan b. Wahb wrote:

Poetic meter has been bereaved of the Signet of the Poets,
​ of the brook that watered its garden—Ḥabīb al-Ṭāʾī;
Both died together and now repose in one pit,
​ as once, while living, they were side by side. (2)

Ibn Wahb had shown especial favor to Abu Tammam and appointed him postmaster of Mosul, where he remained for more than a year.

He died in Jumādā al-Ūlā, 231 AH.

Makhlad al-Mawṣilī, however, said that his death took place in Muḥarram, 232 AH.

Niftawayh and others dated his passing in Sāmarrāʾ to 228 AH.

It is also reported that he lived a little over forty years—may Allah pardon him and have mercy upon him.

Al-Ṣūlī observed: “He was the unique figure of his age for the silkiness of his diction and the eloquence of his verse.”