than these two, then make peace with me for three years.

When the two soldiers were presented to Muʿāwiyah, he said, “Who will face this strong one?”
They replied, “He has but two possible opponents: Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥanafiyyah or ʿAbd Allah ibn al-Zubayr.” So Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥanafiyyah—the son of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib—was brought in.

When the people had gathered, Muʿāwiyah said to him, “Do you know why I sent for you?”
He answered, “No.” Muʿāwiyah then told him about the Byzantine soldier and his prodigious strength.

Muḥammad said to the Roman, “Either you sit for me or I will sit for you, and you put your hand in mine or I put my hand in yours. Whoever manages to raise the other from his seat has prevailed; if he cannot, he is defeated.”

The Roman asked, “What do you choose—will you sit, or shall I?”
Muḥammad replied, “You sit.” Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥanafiyyah then seated himself and offered the Roman his hand. The Roman exerted all his power to move him from his place or even make him stir, but he could not budge him in the slightest. Thus the Roman was beaten, and the delegations that had accompanied him from Byzantium realized he had been vanquished.

Then Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥanafiyyah stood and said to the Roman, “Now sit for me.” The Roman gave him his hand, whereupon Muḥammad at once had him on his feet, hoisted him into the air, and hurled him to the ground. Muʿāwiyah rejoiced greatly at this.

Qays ibn Saʿd now rose, withdrew from the assembly, removed his trousers, and handed them to the tall Roman. When the Roman put them on, they reached up to his chest and their hems dragged along the ground; the Byzantines thereupon acknowledged defeat. Their emperor sent Muʿāwiyah everything he had pledged.

The Anṣār reproached Qays ibn Saʿd for taking off his trousers in public, so he recited the previously quoted verses as an apology to them, making the proof against the Byzantines still more binding and cutting off whatever they had attempted. (1)

Al-Humaydī relates—through Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah, from ʿAmr ibn Dīnār—that “Qays ibn Saʿd was a huge, heavy-set man with a small head and [no] beard on his chin; when he rode a tall donkey his feet would trail on the ground.” (2)

Al-Wāqidī (3), Khalīfah ibn Khayyāṭ (4), and others state that he died in Medina at the end of Muʿāwiyah’s caliphate. Ibn al-Jawzī also recorded his death in that same year, and we have followed him on the matter.