I said:
What he means by “Sakhīnah” is Quraysh. The Arabs used to call them by that name because they alone, unlike most desert-dwellers, could habitually eat hot food. Allah knows best.

Ibn Isḥāq said: Kaʿb ibn Mālik also recited, in the Kāmil metre:

Whoever would delight in a din of blows—
one strike clashing against another
like the crackling of a burning cloak—

let him come to a lions’ lair
where swords are whetted sharp
between the water-skins and the rim of the trench.

Men drilled by master swordsmen,
they have surrendered their very lives
to the Lord of the sunrise.

They are a band through whom God
succoured His Prophet—
He showed His servant kindness through them.

Each man is sheathed in a wide-meshed coat of mail
whose pendent rings lie flat
as palm fronds stirred by a rippling breeze:

gleaming, tight-linked armour,
its interwoven rings like the dark pupils
in grasshoppers’ eyes, perfectly bound.

Over it hangs a well-plaited baldric
urged on by an Indian blade—
pure steel, keen-edged, lustrous.

Together with God-fearing piety,
that is the garb we wear
on the day of tumult and at every hour of trial.

We bare our swords when our strides outpace them;
we drive them forward if ever they lag behind.

Then you see skulls with crowns laid bare—
and hands too—as though they had never been created.

We meet the foe in a massive, tight-packed front
that scatters hosts like a spear aimed straight to the east.

For the enemy we keep lean, red-chested steeds,
piebald, fetlocks whitened, drawn up for war.

They carry horsemen whose face-plates, in the fray,
look like rain-soaked black lions crouching.

In all truth they hand the champions their deaths
beneath the dust cloud with death-dealing, plaited spears.

God has ordered that such mounts be tethered
against His enemy in battle—
truly Allah is the best Granter of success—

so they may vex the foe and guard the homeland
when the rash horsemen press in.

Allah, the All-Mighty, will aid us
with strength from Him and with the truth of patience
when we come face to face.

We obey our Prophet’s command and answer him;
when he calls to a hardship we are never outstripped.

Whenever the summons to adversity is sounded we hasten;
whenever we glimpse the thick of combat we gallop in.

Whoever follows the Prophet’s word—
his command is heeded among us, believed in wholeheartedly.

Through that Allah grants us victory,
makes our honour manifest,
and lets us partake of abundant favour.

Indeed, those who deny Muhammad have disbelieved
and strayed far from the path of the God-fearing.