As they abode thus on the fourth day, behold, a company of folk giving their beasts the rein and crying aloud and saying, “Quick!  Quick!  Haste to our rescue, O King!” Therewithal the king’s chamberlains and officers accosted them and said to them, “What is behind you and what hath befallen you?” Quoth they, “Bring us before the king.” [So they carried them to Ins ben Cais;] and when they saw him, they said to him, “O king, except thou succour us, we are dead men; for that we are a folk of the Benou Sheiban,[FN#67] who have taken up our abode in the parts of Bassora, and Hudheifeh the Arab[FN#68] hath come down on us with his horses and his men and hath slain our horsemen and carried off our women and children; nor was one saved of the tribe but he who fled; wherefore we crave help [first] by God the Most High, then by thy life.”

When the king heard their speech, he bade the crier make proclamation in the thoroughfares of the city that the troops should prepare [for the march] and that the horsemen should mount and the footmen come forth; nor was it but the twinkling of the eye ere the drums beat and the trumpets sounded; and scarce was the forenoon of the day passed when the city was blocked with horse and foot.  So the king passed them in review and behold, they were four-and-twenty thousand in number, horsemen and footmen.  He bade them go forth to the enemy and gave the commandment over them to Said ibn el Wakidi, a doughty cavalier and a valiant man of war.  So the horsemen set out and fared on along the bank of the Tigris.

El Abbas looked at them and saw the ensigns displayed and the standards loosed and heard the drums beating; so he bade his servant saddle him a charger and look to the girths and bring him his harness of war.  Quoth Aamir, “And indeed I saw El Abbas his eyes flash and the hair of his hands stood on end, for that indeed horsemanship[FN#69] abode [rooted in his heart]."So he mounted his charger, whilst Aamir also bestrode a war-horse, and they went forth with the troops and fared on two days.  On the third day, after the hour of the mid-afternoon prayer, they came in sight of the enemy and the two armies met and the ranks joined battle.  The strife raged amain and sore was the smiting, whilst the dust rose in clouds and hung vaulted [over them], so that all eyes were blinded; and they ceased not from the battle till the night overtook them, when the two hosts drew off from the mellay and passed the night, perplexed concerning themselves [and the issue of their affair].

When God caused the morning morrow, the two armies drew out in battle array and the troops stood looking at one another.  Then came forth El Harith ibn Saad between the two lines and played with his lance and cried out and recited the following verses: 

Algates ye are our prey become; this many a day and night Right
     instantly of God we’ve craved to be vouchsafed your sight. 
So hath the Merciful towards Hudheifeh driven you, A champion
     ruling over all, a lion of great might. 
Is there a man of you will come, that I may heal his paint With
     blows right profitful for him who’s sick for lust of fight?