A poem of praise for the famous sultan Salah ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub (Saladin) has been misdated, a new paper argues, and refers not to an unusually close planetary conjunction but to the supernova of 1181. In 1181 and 1182, Chinese and Japanese astronomers reported a “guest” star appearing in the northern sky before fading away. Modern astronomers have puzzled over whether this was a nova or a supernova, and in the latter case, which type. The timing alone represents a weak link to the supernova of 1181, but the poem refers to the star as a signet ring on “The Dyed Hand”. If so, the supernova must have peaked at an apparent brightness greater than α Cas, or 2.25 magnitudes.