You are better than a million (1) of men when warriors’ faces are forced to the ground.

He (‘Umar) said, “You have spoken the truth—by Allah—so indeed he was.”

Sa‘īf ibn ‘Umar related from his teachers, from Sālim (2):

Khalid remained in Madinah until ‘Umar judged that the trial he had feared for the people on his account had subsided. ‘Umar had even resolved to reinstate him once he returned from the ḥajj. Sometime thereafter Khalid fell ill (3) after that (4). He had left Madinah to visit his mother and said to her, “Take me down to my place of Hijrah.” She brought him back to Madinah and cared for him. When his sickness intensified and the arrival of ‘Umar was at hand (5)—a courier having met him three stages out as he returned from the pilgrimage—‘Umar asked him, “Mahyam?” (6) (What news?).

The man replied, “Khalid ibn al-Walid is gravely ill.” ‘Umar then covered three stages in a single night and reached him just as he passed away. He was moved to compassion, said, “To Allah we belong and to Him we return,” and sat at Khalid’s door until the body was prepared. The professional mourners were weeping for him.

Someone said to ‘Umar, “Do you not hear them? Will you not forbid them?”

He answered, “What harm is there if the women of Quraysh weep over Abū Sulaymān, so long as there is no dust-throwing and no shrill wailing?”

When he went out for the funeral ‘Umar saw a hired mourner lamenting him and reciting:

(from the khafīf metre)

You are better than a million of mankind (7)
when men’s faces are flung to the ground.
A brave man? You are braver than a lion (8)
of the thicket, grim sire of cubs.
A generous soul? You are more generous than the head-stream flood (9)
that courses (10) between the mountains.

‘Umar asked, “Who is this woman?”

They said, “His mother.”

He exclaimed, “His mother—by Allah, by Allah, by Allah! Have women ever produced the like of Khalid?”

The narrator said: ‘Umar would thereafter recite, remembering the three stages he covered in one night and his hasty arrival:

(from the wāfī metre)

Do you weep for the ties that bound you to boon companions,
yet not for horsemen solid as mountains?
Those men—if you must weep—are a loss more grievous
than the fading and the murky eclipse (11) of majesty (12).