He replied, “O Messenger of Allah, that is not exactly how I said it.”

The Prophet ﷺ asked, “Then how did you say it?”

Kaʿb answered, “I said:
‘Abū Bakr has handed you a brimming cup to drink;
the Trusted One has slaked your thirst with it again and again.’”

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ remarked, “Indeed, he is most trustworthy—by Allah!”

Kaʿb then recited the entire ode until he reached its end. It is the poem that opens:

“Suʿād has gone, and today my heart is fever-struck—
captive to her, no remedy in sight, enchained.”

We have already noted, by means of our symbols, the points at which Ibn Isḥāq’s wording differs from al-Bayhaqī’s, may Allah have mercy on them both.

Abū ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-Barr reports in his book al-Istiʿāb that when Kaʿb reached the lines:

“Surely the Messenger is a light by which men seek illumination,
a tempered sword, unsheathed from the swords of Allah.
I have been told that the Messenger of Allah has threatened me,
yet pardon from the Messenger of Allah is ever to be hoped for,”

the Messenger of Allah ﷺ signaled to those around him, “Listen well!”

Mūsā ibn ʿUqbah had recorded the same detail earlier in his Maghāzī—praise and favor belong to Allah.

I add: In some narrations it is said that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ gave Kaʿb his mantle after the recitation of the poem. Al-Ṣarṣarī wove this incident into one of his panegyrics, and the ḥāfiẓ Abū’l-Ḥasan ibn al-Athīr likewise cites it in al-Ghābah, noting that this was the very mantle preserved by the caliphs.

This story is exceedingly well-known, yet I have not encountered it in any of the standard works with a chain of transmission I deem sound; Allah knows best.

It is also related that when Kaʿb recited “Suʿād has gone,” the Messenger of Allah ﷺ asked him, “And who is Suʿād?” He replied, “My wife, O Messenger of Allah.” The Prophet said, “She has not gone.” This report, however, is not authentic. Someone evidently imagined from it that Kaʿb’s acceptance of Islam dissolved his marriage, whereas the obvious intent is a purely physical parting, not a legal separation. Allah, exalted is He, knows best.