He was the first to style himself “Shahanshah,” meaning “King of Kings.”
It is authentically reported from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) that he said:
“The most debased name—in another wording, the most contemptible name—in the sight of Allah, exalted is He, is that of a man who calls himself ‘King of Kings’; there is no sovereign but Allah, exalted is He.”
He was also the first for whom kettledrums were beaten in Baghdad, and the first whose name was mentioned there in the Friday sermon together with that of the Caliph. The judge (1) Ibn Khallikān records that poets lavished grand encomia upon him—al-Mutanabbī among them. One such piece is by Abū’l-Ḥasan Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Salamī, from an ode of his (2):
To reach you he traversed the breadth of the plain,
Deeming it enough for the mounts that the palace come into view.
So you, my resolve in the darkness, and my keen sword
Were three things (3) the eagle gathers all at once.
I gladdened my hopes with a king who is all mankind,
A dwelling that is the world, a day that is eternity.
Ibn Khallikān then remarked, “This is lawful magic.”
Al-Mutanabbī said:
She is the furthest aim, and seeing you is the wish fulfilled;
Your abode is the whole world, and you are all creation.
Ibn Khallikān comments: “Al-Salamī’s verse is sweeter and more complete; al-Mutanabbī did not exhaust the idea, for he left out mention of eternity.”
Abū Bakr Aḥmad al-Arjānī, the judge Nāṣih al-Dīn, included a single line in one of his poems, yet he too did not equal al-Salamī (4):
I met him and beheld all people in one man,
All of time in an hour, the whole earth in one house. (5)
Ibn Khallikān continues: Aftakīn, the freedman of his brother and ruler of Damascus (6), wrote to him requesting troops with which to fight the Fāṭimids. ʿAḍud al-Dawlah replied:
“Your power has deluded you, and its final outcome will be your humiliation. Fear your shameless deed; perhaps this will guide you. Peace.”
In this letter he displayed (7) the utmost eloquence and creativity (8).