“ Thus he grew up a brave proud man, a gallant warrior as well as a poet, not easily satisfied either with wealth or honours, indifferent to the Korān and to the fasts and prayers of Islām, but untainted by the looseness of morals common to the poets of those days. ”

“ The poetry of Motanabbī is to European taste much less attractive than the verses of the ancient Arab poets, being essentially artificial and generally unreal, though it has great technical merits and displays lively fancy and considerable inventive power.
Oriental taste places him on a very high pedestal, as may be judged from the fact that more than forty commentaries were written on his Dīwān (H. Khal., iii. 306) . Dieterici’s edition of the poet (Berlin, 1858–1861) , gives the commentary of Wāḥidī (d. 1075) ; the Egyptian edition of 1870 has the commentary of ʽUkbarī (d. 1219) . ”