Quss Ibn Sa'ida al-Iyadi

Quss Ibn Sa'ida al-Iyadi was a pre-Islamic Arabian bishop of Najran, which is located in Saudi Arabia. He lived in the 6th and early 7th seventh centuries, and his genealogy took him back to the North Arabian Iyad tribe. He was famous for his eloquence in his poetry, rhymed prose (saj'), sermons, and rhetoric, and Quss was held up as a model for literary excellence, if not the greatest orator of all the tribes. One of his sermons has survived, and his ascribed oeuvre has been collected. A proverb known from a 717 AD Meccan inscription is occasionally attributed to him too. Quss was a preacher of both theology and monotheism. Quss was a sage, judge, and more. When he died, he was buried in north Syria, probably at Mount Simon. Sources differ in saying how long he lived, some saying he reached the age of 380, others 600 or 700, old enough to have known the disciples of Jesus. He is considered a legendary or, at least, a semi-legendary figure, and is only known from Muslim sources. Islamic writers including Ibn Abd Rabbihi, Al-Masudi, Al-Bayhaqi, and Abu Hayyan al-Tawhidi say that Quss met with the Byzantine emperor Heraclius to discuss ethics concerned with monotheism, life in this world, and life in the next world. Some modern historians have speculated that Quss was an Arian.