He was an author of courtly poetry for the Córdoban military leader Almanzor and after 1018, for the rulers of the Taifa of Zaragoza.
[2][3] He is mentioned by the Muslim philosopher Al-Tha'alibi in his work Kitāb Yatīmat saying "He was for the country Andalus that which al-Mutanabbi was for Syria, a poet of the highest order, and equally elegant in what he said and wrote.
The medieval cartographer Muhammad al-Idrisi places Kastalla on the coast, fourteen miles east of Tavira.
However, in 1008, a civil war broke out and he was forced to emigrate, first to Cueta in 1008 with the Hammudids, then to the Taifa of Zaragoza, where he started work as vizier-secretary and court poet for Al-Mundir I in 1018.
He also sang at the wedding organized by Mundir in 1021 between Count Berenguer Ramon I of Barcelona and Sancha Sánchez, daughter of Sancho Garcia of Castile.