the provinces and towns: if they obey as you have obeyed, then I am your governor; but if they refuse, I am no governor over you.” (1)

He then stepped down, and they set about preparing Sulayman’s body.
Al-Awzaʿi said: They had not finished before the time of Maghrib arrived, so ʿUmar led the people in the sunset prayer, then performed the funeral prayer over Sulayman, and he was buried after Maghrib. When ʿUmar departed, the imperial mounts were brought to him, but he refused to ride them; instead he mounted his own beast and left with the people until they reached Damascus. They turned him toward the caliphal residence, but he said, “I shall not dismount except at my own house until the residence of Abu Ayyub is vacated.” This was deemed commendable of him. (2)

He then summoned the scribe and began dictating the text of the letter on which the provinces would pledge their allegiance. (3)
Rajāʾ said: I have never seen anyone more eloquent than he.

Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq said: Sulayman ibn ʿAbd al-Malik died at Dābiq, in the district of Qinnasrīn, on Friday, ten nights having elapsed of Safar in the year 99 AH—two years, nine months, and twenty days after al-Walid’s death. The majority report the same date. Some, however, say it was ten nights remaining of Safar. They also say his rule lasted two years and eight months, some adding “minus five days,” and Allah knows best. (4)

Al-Ḥākim Abū Aḥmad’s assertion—reported by Ibn ʿAsākir (5)—that he died on Friday, thirteen nights remaining of Ramadan 99 AH, that his caliphate lasted two years, three months, and five days, and that he died at the age of thirty-nine is exceedingly odd; the majority disagree with him on every point, holding that he had surpassed forty years of age—some say by three years, others by five—and Allah knows best.

They also said: He was tall, handsome, fair-skinned, and slender, with a comely face and joined eyebrows. He was articulate and eloquent, proficient in Arabic, inclined to piety and goodness, loving of truth and its people, devoted to the Quran and the Sunnah, and keen to manifest the Islamic rites—may Allah have mercy on him.

The caliph Sulayman ibn ʿAbd al-Malik (may Allah have mercy on him) had sworn, when he left Damascus for Marj Dābiq—near the region of Aleppo—after sending forth the armies to the great Byzantine capital, Constantinople, that he would not return to Damascus until the city was conquered or he died. He died there, as we have recounted, and with that intention he died stationed on the frontier—may Allah have mercy on him and refresh his resting place with His mercy. (6)