Ibn Isḥāq relates: ʿĀṣim ibn ʿUmar ibn Qatādah said, “When Kaʿb—meaning in his ode—recited the verse,
‘When the dark, cunning ones break into song,’
he was alluding to us, the Anṣār, because of what one of our number had done to him, while confining his praise to the Emigrants from Quraysh. The Anṣār therefore grew angry with him. After Kaʿb entered Islam he composed verses extolling the Anṣār, celebrating the hardships they had borne for the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and the lofty rank they held. They are from the Kāmil metre:

Whoever delights in a life of honor—let him remain
ever in the ranks of the righteous Anṣār;
Noble traits have come to them, heir to heir—
the choicest are the sons of the chosen.
They force their foes to sleepless nights, their out-stretched arms
as long and keen as tempered Indian steel;
They keep watch with eyes inflamed like glowing embers,
yet sharp of sight, never dulled.
They have sold their very souls to their Prophet,
ready for death when fighters clasp and charge again.
They drive men from their false creeds
with the fine-edged sword and the whistling spear.
They count it worship to purify themselves
with the blood of the unbelievers they seize.
Trained—like beasts reared in a hidden valley—
to wrest the necks of ravening black lions.
Should you alight among them for their protection,
you will find yourself behind impregnable ramparts.
They struck a mighty blow on the Day of Badr—
all the tribes of Nizār bowed to its force.
If people possessed the full knowledge I have of them,
even my contenders would surely believe me.
A folk who, when the stars grow faint at night’s last watch,
are still a shelter to the traveller who arrives unannounced.

Ibn Hishām says: It is reported that when Kaʿb recited “Banat Suʿād” to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, the Prophet remarked, “Would that you had praised the Anṣār as well, for they are worthy of it.” Kaʿb thereupon composed the foregoing lines, which form part of one of his poems.

He [Ibn Hishām] also said: It has reached me from ʿAlī ibn Zayd ibn Judʿān that Kaʿb ibn Zuhayr recited “Banat Suʿād, and today my heart is fever-struck” to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ inside the mosque.

Al-Ḥāfiẓ al-Bayhaqī has transmitted this report through the chain cited earlier: Ibrāhīm ibn al-Munḏir al-Ḥazāmī told us, “Maʿn ibn ʿĪsā related to me, and Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Awqaṣ related from Ibn Judʿān”—and he mentioned the incident. The report, however, is mursal.

Shaykh Abū ʿUmar Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr—may Allah have mercy on him—says in his work al-Istīʿāb fī Maʿrifat al-Aṣḥāb: