50 – ʿAbbās ibn Hishām ibn Muḥammad related to me, from his father, from Muḥriz ibn Jaʿfar, who said:
Arṭāʿah ibn Suhayyah al-Murrī entered the presence of ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān when he had already lived ⦗65⦘ one hundred and thirty years. ʿAbd al-Malik asked him, “What is left of your poetry?” He replied, “By Allah, I no longer drink, I am no longer stirred by music, I no longer grow angry—and poetry only comes in such a state. Still, I recite:
(Metre: wāfir)
I have seen the nights consume a man
As earth devours a shard of fallen steel;
When death arrives it leaves behind no surplus
In the soul of Adam’s child—no further yield;
And I know it will come around until
It pays its debt to Abū al-Walīd.
ʿAbd al-Malik was alarmed, for he was known as Abū al-Walīd, and Arṭāʿah too bore that kunya. Arṭāʿah therefore said, “Commander of the Believers, I did not mean you; I meant myself.” He replied, “Death will come round for me as well.”