It was mentioned above that Muḥammad ibn Abī Ḥudhayfah had seized Egypt and expelled ʿAbd Allah ibn Saʿd ibn Abī Sarḥ—the governor whom ʿUthmān had appointed after ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ. ʿAlī kept Muḥammad in office for a short while, then removed him and installed Qays ibn Saʿd. When Qays entered Egypt he governed it well and maintained firm order, and that was in the year 36 AH. His growing influence became burdensome to Muʿāwiyah and ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ, so they wrote to him, inviting him to join them against ʿAlī. He refused and publicly professed good counsel toward them, while privately remaining loyal to ʿAlī. News of this reached ʿAlī, who dismissed him and dispatched al-Ashṭar al-Nakhaʿī to Egypt, [but he died] (1) al-Ashṭar at al-Ramla before arriving. ʿAlī then sent Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr. Muʿāwiyah and ʿAmr now judged the matter light and did not relent until they wrested Egypt from him; Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr was killed and his body burned inside the carcass of a donkey.

Qays then travelled to Medina, and from there to ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib in Kūfah. He stood with him in all his battles until ʿAlī was killed. He next accompanied al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī when the latter marched out to fight Muʿāwiyah, with Qays commanding the vanguard. When al-Ḥasan pledged allegiance to Muʿāwiyah, Qays was distressed and displeased; he refused to obey Muʿāwiyah and withdrew to Medina. Later he came to Muʿāwiyah in a delegation of the Anṣār. After a severe exchange and harsh words between them he pledged allegiance; Muʿāwiyah then honoured him, advanced his rank, and he enjoyed high favour with him.

While he was sitting with the delegations at Muʿāwiyah’s court, a letter arrived from the Byzantine emperor saying, “Send me the trousers of the tallest man among the Arabs.” Muʿāwiyah remarked, “It seems we shall need your trousers,” for Qays was exceedingly tall. Qays rose, stepped aside, removed his trousers, and threw them to Muʿāwiyah. Muʿāwiyah said, “You could have gone home and sent them to us later!” Whereupon Qays recited:

“I wished by this that all might know and say—
These are Qays’s trousers, and the delegations see.
Lest they should claim, ‘Qays was absent; these must be
The tattered pants of some old Adite raised by Thamūd.’
Indeed, I am a chief of the Yemeni clan:
Among mankind are only leaders and the led.
So pit them against one like me, for men like me
Are formidable, and my stature among men is long.
My noble stock and father set me above the rest,
And the reach of my arm over men is wide.”

He (the narrator) said: Muʿāwiyah ordered the tallest man in the assembly to hold the trousers against his nose, and their hems still rested on the ground (2).

In another report: the Byzantine emperor sent Muʿāwiyah two soldiers, claiming that one was the strongest of the Romans and the other the tallest. He wrote: “See whether among your people there is anyone who surpasses them—this one in strength and that one in height. If someone among you exceeds them, I shall send you such-and-such captives and such-and-such gifts; but if your army contains no one stronger and taller…”