He met with difficulties in Egypt and never went, instead accepting Abu'l-Qasim's invitation to come to the island of Sicily, then part of the Norman Kingdom, but retaining a vibrant Arab culture.
He arrived in Palermo on 9 June 1168 at the start of Ramadan, and passed the following months visiting the gardens of the Conca d'Oro and the royal palaces.
[b][2] While he was preparing to return to Egypt, he received a gift of cheese, butter, oil, tuna, cotton, walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts, wheat, flour, wine, and other things.
[2] From Palermo, he went to Termini, Cefalù, Caronia, Patti, Oliveri,[c][1] and Milazzo before stopping in Syracuse in order to take ship to Egypt.
He was back in Palermo by 2 January 1169, when he wrote a qaṣīda on the birth of a son to Abu'l-Qasim's brother.
The purpose of his visit may have been commercial or diplomatic, since he had been urged by the Fatimid poet Umara al-Yamani to see the vizier of Aden, Abu Bakr al-Idi.
[4] He also wrote a book, al-Zahr al-bāsim fī awṣāf Abī'l-Qāsim,[d] in honour of Abu'l-Qasim.
It is quoted in both prose and verse in the Kharīda of Imad ad-Din al-Isfahani, in the section on the poets of Egypt.