So they said, “You, Abū ʿAbd Shams, speak up and lay down an opinion we can all stand by.”

He answered, “No, you put something forward and I will listen.”

They suggested, “We could say he is a soothsayer.”

He replied, “He is no soothsayer. I have seen soothsayers, and his speech is nothing like their low muttering incantations.”

They said, “Then we will say he is possessed.”

He responded, “He is not possessed. We have seen the mad and recognize them; he shows none of their choking fits, spasms, or obsessive whisperings.”

They said, “In that case we will call him a poet.”

He said, “He is not a poet. We are well-versed in poetry—its rajaz, its hazaj, its qarīḍ, its condensed and its expansive forms—and his words are none of these…"