[1] After a sojourn at the court of Ghassan, he returned to al-Hirah under al-Nu'man III ibn al-Mundhir.
Owing to his verses written about the Queen he was compelled to flee to Ghassan, but returned ca., 600.
He is one of the six eminent pre-Islamic poets whose poems were collected before the middle of the 2nd century of Islam, and have been regarded as the standard of Arabic poetry; some writers consider him the first of the six.
Though the meaning is disputed, Nicolai Sinai and Ilkka Lindstedt both have interpreted it in relation to the Ghassanids possessing some sort of scripture or book bestowed upon them by God (which may or may not refer to the New Testament).
[2] His poems were edited by Wilhelm Ahlwardt in the Diwans of the Six Ancient Arabic Poets (London, 1870), and separately by Hartwig Derenbourg (Paris, 1869, a reprint from the Journal asiatique for 1868).