—preserve me through her (1).’

ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, her cousin, later married her (2).

When death drew near, he heard a washerman beating clothes and asked, “What is that sound?”
They replied, “A washerman.”
He said, “Would that I had been a washerman, earning my living day by day, and had never taken on the caliphate.”

He then recited:

By my life, I reigned (3) for a span of years,
And the world bowed to me beneath the clash of keen blades;
I was granted red-gold wealth, authority, and sound judgement,
And every haughty king surrendered at my feet.
But all that once delighted me has vanished—
A dream long gone with the distant ages.
Would that I had never busied myself with rule for even a single night (4),
Nor sought (5) the dazzling pleasures of luxurious life.

Muʿāwiyah ibn Abī Sufyān is said to have recited these very lines when death came to him (6).

Abū Mushir reported:
Someone asked ʿAbd al-Malik during his final illness, “How do you find yourself?”
He answered, “I find myself as Allah, Exalted is He, has said:
‘And indeed you have come to Us one by one, just as We created you the first time, and you have left behind all that We granted you’ (al-Anʿām 94).”

Saʿīd ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz said:
When ʿAbd al-Malik was on his deathbed, he ordered the doors of his palace to be opened. Once they were opened, he heard a cloth-fuller in the valley and asked, “What is that?”
They said, “A fuller.”
He replied, “Would that I had been a fuller, living from the work of my own hands.”
When Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib heard of this, he said, “Praise be to Allah who makes them, at the time of their death, flee toward us, while we do not flee toward them.”
He added, “When death overtook him he began to regret and lament, striking his hand upon his head and saying, ‘I wish I had earned my daily provision day by day and devoted myself to obedience to Allah.’”

Others relate:
When death was imminent he summoned his sons, advised them, and then said, “Praise be to Allah, who is not questioned by any of His creation, great or small.” He then recited:

Is there anyone who lives forever when we have perished,
And, O people, is there any disgrace in dying? (7)

It is also narrated that he said, “Lift me up.” They raised him until he caught the open air, whereupon he said, “O world, how pleasant you are! Yet your long span is short, your plenty trivial—and we were surely deluded by you.” He then recited the two previous lines, and it is related that Muʿāwiyah uttered them in the same situation.