Thus he resembled him in conduct, form, and chastity, and each of them is but a vicegerent of the All-Merciful on earth (1).
You lifted from the House of Hāshim a reproach—
a shame that would yield to nothing but your sword.

Shaykh Shihāb al-Dīn Abū Shāmah mentioned these verses (2) in his work al-Rawḍatayn (3); his version is longer than the one cited here. He related that Abū al-Faḍāʾil al-Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad ibn Turkan (4), the vizier of Ibn Hubayra, recited the poem to the Caliph al-Mustanjid before his death (5), while interpreting a dream someone had seen for the Caliph on this matter. By the “second Joseph” he intended al-Mustanjid himself.

Ibn al-Jawzī likewise reports (6 )(7) that the poem was declaimed during the lifetime of al-Mustanjid, yet the khuṭbah was only proclaimed with it for his son al-Mustaḍīʾ. The auspicious omen thus came to rest upon the name of al-Malik al-Nāṣir Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn Yūsuf ibn Ayyūb—may Allah have mercy on him (8 )(9).

When the Caliph al-Mustaḍīʾ bi-Amr Allāh received the glad tidings that the khuṭbah in Egypt was now delivered in his name, he sent to King Nūr al-Dīn a splendid, Sunnī robe of honor (10 )(11). The same was dispatched to Sultan Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn in the Egyptian domains, together with black banners and a bound standard. These were distributed among the congregational mosques (12) of Syria and Egypt. All praise belongs to Allah for the glory and victory He bestowed.

Ibn Abī Ṭayyiʾ (13) relates in his book (14): Once Sultan Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn al-Malik al-Nāṣir had completed the consolidation of the kingdom, established the Abbasid khuṭbah, and offered condolences over the elimination of the ʿUbaydid regime that pretended to be Fāṭimid, he inspected the treasuries of the two palaces. There he found stores, furnishings, implements, garments, attire, and carpets of a dazzling and astounding nature. Among them were: seven hundred peerless jewels, an emerald staff more than a span in length, and a fish about the size of a thumb.