Yazid b. ‘Abd al-Malik devoted himself to wine and songstresses; he was called the dissolute of the Umayyads; he fell in love with two of his female slaves: one was called Habbaba and the other was called Sallama. He spent the days of his lifetime with them. One day Habbaba sang him:
There is heat between the throat and the palate!
It does not become calm nor it goes down, that it may be cold!
He was so delighted that he lost his mind. He began flying in the air and she sneeringly said to him: “O Commander of the faithful, I have a need with you.”
He unconsciously said: “By Allah, I will fly!” She began making fun of him and sneering at the community that empowered him over it, saying to him: “To whom will you entrust this community?”
“To you,” he replied.
Then he turned to her and began kissing her hand, while she was playing with him and making fun of him.
One day he went for a walk in one of the Jordanian districts. His female slave Habbaba was with him. He and her drank wine. When he became drunk, he threw a grape at her. The grape entered her mouth. She choked to death on it. He lost his mind due to the death of this songstress. He left her for three days. He did not bury her to the extent that she became bad-smelling. He smelt her, kissed her corpse, and wept over her, while she was a motionless corpse. One of his special group talked to him concerning her and he permitted her to be buried. He sadly returned to his palace and heard one of his female slaves say:
Enough for sadness that the lover who is madly in love sees the houses of his lover left and deserted!
He wept bitter tears; sadness and sorrow controlled him. He stayed for seven days in his palace; he did not met the people as a sign of mourning and sadness for this sinful female slave. Then his brother Muslima advised him to go out to meet the people lest he should be famous for this evil deed, and they would turn away from him. He responded to his advice and went out to meet the people. ( Ibn al-Athir, Tarikh, vol. 5, p. 57.)