The patchwork of sources found in Abu Shama's work include valuable selections of the account of Saladin's administrator, Al Qadi al Fadil, and his description of the Templar's castle at Jacob's Ford. Additionally, a source by Ibn Ali Tayy, only survives in the selections incorporated into Abu Shama's work. In it, Saladin is recorded as offering the Franks first 60,000 dinars, then 100,000 dinars to destroy the castle.
Abu Shama also claims to record an interesting early appeal of Saladin to other Muslims for action against the crusaders. Francesco Gabrieli's Arab Historians of the Crusades, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1969 offers an english translation of Saladin's appeal. Saladin calls for God's help to end the suffering of Muslims at the hands of the Franks and mentions the strategic necessity of shutting off the crusaders ability to resupply by sea. He also attacks the lack of zeal shown among Muslims in responding the crusader's threat and contrasts it with all the crusader's have accomplished because of their unity of purpose.
Abu Shama text is available in the Recueil des Historiens des Croisades, Historiens Orientaux, Vol. IV. Paris, 1898.