Muḥammad ibn Saʿd (1) records him in the fourth tier of the Companions and says, “Because of his toughness, bravery, and expertise in warfare (2), he was reckoned the equal of a thousand horsemen.” Abū Naṣr ibn Mākūlā adds, “He accepted Islam, then apostatized, then returned to the faith, and his Islam thereafter became exemplary; he, too, was considered worth a thousand mounted fighters.”

Among the verses he composed during his apostasy—when he claimed prophethood and killed Muslim Companions (3)—are the following (in the ṭawīl metre):

So what do you think of a people when you slay them—
Are they not, even if they do not submit, still men?

If a few camels I have seized, and some women,
They did not flee in alarm at the death of Khiyāl (4).

Against them I set the vanguard of al-Ḥamālah, for she
Is one who returns whenever the warriors are told, “Engage!”

One day you see her guarded, clothed in majesty,
(And another day you behold her devoid of that majesty,)
(And yet another you glimpse the mashrafiyyah blade flashing toward her,)
And another day you find her beneath the shade of lofty lances.

On the evening I left Ibn Aqram lying dead,
And ʿUkkāshah al-Ghanamī (5) upon the field of combat.

Sayf ibn ʿUmar (6) relates, through Mubashshir ibn al-Faḍlīl, from Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh: “By Allah, besides Whom there is no deity, we never observed anyone at al-Qādisiyyah seeking this world along with the Hereafter. We did suspect three men, yet when we scrutinized them we found in them unmatched trustworthiness and asceticism: Ṭulayḥah ibn Khuwailid al-Asadī, ʿAmr ibn Maʿdīkarib, and Qays ibn al-Makshūḥ.”

Ibn ʿAsākir reports that Abū al-Ḥusayn (7) Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn al-Qawwās (8) al-Warrāq stated: “Ṭulayḥah was martyred at Nihāwand in the year 21 AH together with al-Nuʿmān ibn Muqarrin, and ʿAmr ibn Maʿdīkarib as well—may Allah be pleased with them.”

ʿAmr ibn Maʿdīkarib (9) son of ʿAbd Allāh son of ʿAmr son of ʿĀṣim (10) son of ʿAmr son of Zubayd the Younger, who is Munabbih, son of