“O, what a fine little sparrow you are down at Maʿmar! (1)
The air has cleared for you—so lay your eggs and turn them yellow, (2)
and peck away as much as you wish to peck.”
He was alluding to Ibn al-Zubayr.
It is also related that Yazīd ibn Muʿāwiya wrote to Ibn al-Zubayr saying,
“I have sent you a chain of silver, a shackle of gold, and a collar of silver. I have sworn that you shall come to me wearing them, so honour my oath and do not split the community.”
When Ibn al-Zubayr read the letter, he cast it from his hand and recited:
“I shall never soften to anyone for aught but the truth I seek,
until the molar tooth makes hard stone grow soft.” (3)
When Yazīd ibn Muʿāwiya died, and soon after him his son Muʿāwiya ibn Yazīd, the cause of ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Zubayr gained great strength. He was given the pledge of allegiance in the Ḥijāz, Iraq, and Egypt (4). Ḍaḥḥāk ibn Qays pledged allegiance to him in Damascus and its districts, but Marwān ibn al-Ḥakam opposed him and, persisting, killed him and a number of his followers at Marj Rāhiṭ, as mentioned earlier; thereafter the people of Syria gave their pledge to Marwān. He seized Syria and Egypt from Ibn al-Zubayr’s governors, dispatched detachments to Iraq, and then died. He was succeeded by ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān, who slew Muṣʿab ibn al-Zubayr and wrested Iraq from him. Next he sent al-Ḥajjāj, who besieged Ibn al-Zubayr in Makkah for almost seven months, finally overcoming him on Tuesday, the seventeenth of Jumādā al-Ūlā in the year 73 AH.
Ibn al-Zubayr’s rule began in the year 64 AH. He led the pilgrims every year of his tenure and rebuilt the Kaʿbah in the fashion indicated by the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, restoring it to its original foundation, as (5) Mother of the Believers ʿĀʾishah (may Allah be pleased with her) had informed him. He draped it in silk (6), whereas previously its covering had been tanned hides and coarse woollen cloth (7). He perfumed it so richly that its fragrance could be detected outside the Sacred Precinct, and inscribed upon its covering were the words: “For ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Bakr, Commander of the Believers.” (8)
Ibn al-Zubayr was a scholar, a devout worshipper, awe-inspiring, dignified, given to abundant fasting and prayer, deeply humble, and politically astute.
Abū Nuʿaym al-Iṣfahānī said:
“Abū Ḥāmid ibn Jabalah narrated to us; Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq al-Thaqafī narrated to us; Aḥmad ibn Saʿīd al-Dāramī narrated to us; Abū ʿĀṣim narrated to us, from ʿUmar ibn Qays, who said:
‘Ibn al-Zubayr had one hundred servants, each of whom spoke…’”}