…by Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā al-Dhuhlī, from Abū Ṣāliḥ, from al-Layth, from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Khālid ibn Musāfir, from al-Zuhrī, from him.
Al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn ʿAsākir said (1): His residence in Damascus stood where the Jīrūn ablution area (2) is today, covering that entire site. He also built a large house adjoining Bāb al-Ṣaghīr, at the lane known as Darb Muḥriz, and made it the seat of government, erecting within it a yellow dome in imitation of the Green Dome.
He added: Sulaymān was eloquent, committed to justice, and fond of jihad. He dispatched troops to besiege Constantinople until its people agreed to the construction of a mosque there.
Abū Bakr al-Ṣūlī relates that ʿAbd al-Malik once gathered his sons—al-Walīd, Sulaymān and Maslamah—before him. He had them recite the Quran, and they did so excellently. He then asked them to recite poetry, and they performed well, except that they neither completed nor mastered the verses of al-Aʿshā, for which he reproached them.
He said, “Let each of you recite for me the most delicate line the Arabs have ever uttered, provided it is not obscene. Begin, Walīd.”
Al-Walīd recited:
[basīṭ]
No mount—and horse-riding delights me—
is like mounting between an armlet and an anklet.
ʿAbd al-Malik remarked, “Can poetry be more risqué than that? Your turn, Sulaymān.”
Sulaymān recited:
[khafīf]
How fair it is when she draws her hands back to herself,
while in my hands her tunic loosens the waist-cloth.
He replied, “You have not hit the mark. Maslamah, recite.”
Maslamah gave the couplet of Imruʾ al-Qays:
Your eyes shed tears only to shoot
your twin arrows into the fragments of a heart already slain.
ʿAbd al-Malik said, “Imruʾ al-Qays lied and missed the point. When her eyes weep from longing, nothing remains but union. What befits the lover is to endure her aloofness and cloak her with affection.
“I give you three days to bring me such a line; whoever brings it shall have whatever he wishes.”
They left his presence. While Sulaymān was riding in procession he happened upon a Bedouin driving his camels and chanting:
If for her sake they struck my head with the sword (3),
my head would still swiftly incline toward her.
Sulaymān ordered that the Bedouin be detained, then returned to his father and said, “I have brought you what you asked for.”
“Let me hear it,” said ʿAbd al-Malik. Sulaymān recited the verse.
“Well done! And how did you come by it?” He told him the Bedouin’s story.
ʿAbd al-Malik said, “Ask for your need, and do not forget your companion.”
Sulaymān replied, “O Commander of the Believers, you have appointed al-Walīd as your successor; I would like to be heir-apparent after him.” He granted the request, sent him to lead the pilgrimage in 81 AH, and gave him one hundred thousand dirhams. Sulaymān passed the entire sum to that Bedouin [who had recited the verse] (4).