Ibrāhīm al-Ḥuṣrī justifies compiling this book by Abū al-Faḍl Abbās Ibn Suleymān’s infatuation with literature. Having brought back books from the Machreq, he asked our author to "extract their choicest parts and use them to compile a book so that he would not have to consult them all ". It is to this man, who holds a special place in Al- Ḥuṣrī’s heart, that he dedicated his book entitled Nūr al-Ṭarf [Light of the Eyes].
Zahru al-Ādāb is thus an anthology of poetic texts and narratives. These extracts have nothing in common with the interminable narratives found in works such as Al-ʿIqd al-farīd, for example, that could turn a book into a historical chronicle. He believes that such lengthy narratives are cumbersome and should be avoided in favor of writings featuring "the most pleasant and easily memorized words" among "the terms in use among contemporaries"; but, as a rule, such items are not to be found in works similar to Zahru al-Ādāb. This explains the large number of quotations from Al-Hamaḏānī, Al-Mīkālī, Al-H̱awārizmī, IbnʿAbbّād and Al-ṯaʿālibī among the prose writers and the lesser-known compositions of great poets such as Ibn al-Muʿtazz, Abū Tammām, Ibn al-Rūmī, Kušāǧim and Al-Mutanabbī. There are also exquisite tales and little-known stories. The author was intent on avoiding trite discourse and repetition. He also made a point of diversifying his material and "not putting similar things side by side" because similar items placed contiguously may turn out to be cumbersome for the reader. No doubt this mode of writing bears the imprint of Al-Ǧāḥiẓ.
The book is essentially Maghrebi in its specific way of reproducing the literature of the Machreq. Chains of transmission and long narratives are discarded in favor of a more modern literature that disengages itself, as much as possible, from the environment of the literature of the Machreq.
Nonetheless, the work does reproduce extracts by poets from Ifriqiyya, such as Ibn Hānī al-Andalusī, ʿAlī In Muḥammad al-Iyadī, Prince Tamīm Ibn al-Muʿizz li-Dīn al-Lāh al-Fāṭimī and ʿAbdelkarīm al-Nahšalī.
The fame and circulation enjoyed by Zahru al-Ādāb wa Ṯamr al-Albāb [A Literary Garland] were never achieved by another book by Ibrāhīm al-Ḥuṣrī. Ibn Bassām Al-Šantarīnī had this to say about it: 'He drew inspiration from Al-Ǧāḥiẓ for his work which he entitled Zahru al-Ādāb wa Ṯamr al-Albāb. Mark my words, his scope is by no means restricted; his steps have by no means failed; and were it not for the terms used by contemporaries with which he has filled every nook and cranny of his book, at the expense of the language of the Arabs, it would be the ultimate work on literature, a judgment that would be disputed only by one whose horizon is restricted and whom jealousy has blinded. (Ibn Bassām, , Aḏḏaẖīra, 584/4). Zahr al-Ādāb b is considered a literary encyclopedia that the scholar of ancient literature cannot evade, so much so that Abū al-Ḥasan Ibn Barrīused it to compile a digest that he entitled Iqtiṭāf al-Zahr wa Iǧtināʾ al-Šiʿr [Gathering Flowers, Collecting Poetry].
