443. When the news of the death of (Malik) al-Ashtar (may Allah have mercy on him), reached Amir al-mu'minin, peace be upon him, he said: Malik, what a man Malik was! By Allah, if he had been a mountain he would have been a great one (find), and if he had been a stone he would have been hard; no horseman could have reached it and no bird could have flown over it.