He cited a portion of the biographical entry on Kaʿb ibn Zuhayr, saying:

Kaʿb ibn Zuhayr was an accomplished and prolific poet, pre-eminent in his generation together with his brother Bujayr. Kaʿb was the more gifted of the two, though their father Zuhayr surpassed them both. Among the verses of Kaʿb that are held in especial esteem are these:

[Basit metre]
Were I to marvel at anything, my wonder would be
 a youth who strives while his destiny lies hid;
He chases after aims he will never attain—
 one soul, yet cares scattered far and wide.
So long as a man draws breath his hope is stretched;
 the eye will not desist until the trace has vanished.

Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr then quoted many other poems of his, too numerous to reproduce here, and he did not record the date of Kaʿb’s death. Nor did Abū l-Ḥasan ibn al-Athīr in al-Ghābah fī Maʿrifat al-Ṣaḥābah (1); he merely related that Kaʿb’s father died one year before the Prophet’s mission. Allah knows best.

Al-Suhaylī (2) said: Among the lines in which Kaʿb excelled are those he composed in praise of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ:

[Basit metre]
A dark-bay she-camel bears him swiftly, its rider wrapped
 in a mantle that gleams like the full moon dispelling night’s blackness.
Within its folds—or in the very weave of that cloak—
 lie, as Allah knows, true faith and generosity.

Section
On the well-known events and deaths in the eighth year

In Jumādā of that year occurred the Battle of Muʾtah; in Ramadan, the Conquest of Mecca; thereafter, in Shawwāl, the campaign against the tribe of Hawāzin at Ḥunayn; following that was the siege of al-Ṭāʾif; then came the ʿUmrah of al-Jiʿrānah in Dhū l-Qaʿdah, after which he returned to Madinah during the remainder of the year.

Al-Wāqidī (3) states: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ returned to Madinah with only a few nights of Dhū l-Ḥijjah remaining in that journey of his.

He also reports that in the same year the Messenger of Allah ﷺ sent ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ to Jifar and ʿAmr, the two sons of al-Julandā (4).