His verse displayed astonishing craftsmanship and startling originality. Al-Sūlī later arranged and classified his collected poems. He was a leading master of both lampoon and eulogy, and he is the author of the lines:

Your judgment, your faces, and your swords—
when crises fall and the stars grow dim—
within them shine beacons of guidance and lamps
that disperse the night, while the others are but shooting stars. (1)

He was born in 221 AH.

He died with two nights remaining of Jumādā al-Ūlā in 283 AH; some said it was in 284.

It is reported that the vizier al-Qāsim ibn ʿUbayd Allah, fearing Ibn al-Rūmī’s satirical lash, had a poisoned khushkunāka pastry (2) slipped to him. Realising that it was tainted, he sprang to his feet. The vizier asked, “Where to?”
He answered, “To the place you have dispatched me.”
The vizier said, “Greet my father for me.”
He replied, “My path will not pass by the Fire.”
He lingered a few days and then died (3).

245 – Tamīm ibn Muḥammad ibn Ṭumghāj al-Ṭūsī *

The ḥāfiẓ, the Imām, the tireless itinerant, the reliable authority; Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Ṭūsī, compiler of the extensive Musnad arranged by narrators.

He travelled widely and heard hadith from Shaybān ibn Farrūkh, Hudbah ibn Khālid, Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, Isḥāq ibn Rāhwayh, ʿAlī ibn Ḥujr, and Ibrāhīm ibn al-Ḥajjāj.