The poets sang his praises, and one of them said (1):
[From al-Tawil]
By your resolute spirit, the shafts of spears bend (2),
and the eyes of the enemy dare not so much as blink before your glory.
A meteor of guidance blazing through the darkness of idolatry (3),
and a sword which, when Allah brandishes it, is razor-keen (4).
You took your stand at the fortress of al-Makhad—
a stand of truth that no other stand can equal.
The very face of the earth was hidden, for men advanced
like the lions of al-Shara, crawling forward.
There were sleek, swift chargers (5), double-layered coats of mail,
and a supple Indian blade, perfectly honed (6).
Your yellow banners (7) never turned back for even an hour
until their very black livers began to quake.
From its heights a cross and a church toppled (8),
and in their place the upright religion was raised, together with the Quran.
The cross of the worshippers of the cross and their field of battle—you left it flat and bare (9).
Can a band who veers toward perjury even as they swear their oaths (10)
dwell in the homelands of the prophets?
I counselled you—and religious counsel is an obligation (11):
leave the House of Jacob, for Joseph has arrived.
Another poet expressed it finely:
[From al-Mutaqarib]
The doom of the Franks came swiftly;
the time has arrived to shatter their crosses.
Had their destruction not already been at hand,
they would never have built their House of Sorrows (12).