While at the court of Sayf al-Dawla, Ibn Jinni reports that al-Mutanabbi was "presumptuous and forward in his speech and very bold in addressing Sayf al-Dawla." Some of the lines in the elegy of his patron's mother, as well as those of his late sister, Princess Khawla, were in poor taste. "The eloquent poets would not dare to sing here a single verse but I do, because I am a brave lion!"