Heraclius, on hearing this, summoned the fighting men of the city; when they appeared before him, he ordered that Malatya be burned. The Roman troops, still in flight, fell back toward Heraclius while he was in Homs, and the Muslims were close on their heels, killing, capturing, and seizing spoils. When the report reached him, Heraclius broke camp, left Homs behind him, and used it as a shield. He exclaimed, “As for Syria—there is no Syria any more! Woe to the Romans because of the ill-fated newborn.”

Among the verses composed about the Day of Yarmouk are the lines of al-Qaʿqaʿ ibn ʿAmr:

Have you not seen that at Yarmouk we prevailed
just as we had prevailed in the days of Iraq?
We opened ʿAdhrāʾ of al-Madāʾin, and Marj al-Sufar with our high-bred, swift-footed steeds (1);
Before that we had taken Busra, long held inviolable against every cawing raven (2).
We slew all who confronted us—men we once held in awe—with slim, flashing swords;
We struck the Romans down until, on Yarmouk, blood-drained bones lay heaped upon the ground.
We shattered their host when they wheeled at al-Waqūṣ beneath our keen, curved blades (3),
That morning when they plunged headlong into the fray and found themselves trapped, tasting only death.

Al-Aswad Abū Mufazzar (4) al-Tamimi said:

How many a raid upon raid have we launched—day after day we stripped away their terrors!
Had it not been for men who stumbled (5) after booty at the place of sharing (6), whose vanguard shook before us,
We would have met them at Yarmouk when the noose tightened on all whose baggage lay there;
Let Heraclius never be without our battalions—should he attempt them, he attempts what none can attempt!

ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ recited:

Their people are Lakhm and Judham when war ignites,
While we and the Romans contend upon the plain.
If they return to it, we will not keep their company;
Rather, we will crown the fleeing with the blows of painful swords.

Ahmad ibn Marwān al-Māliki (8) related in his book al-Majālasa: “Abu Ismaʿil al-Tirmidhi narrated to us…”