ثُمَّ خَيْلٌ مِنْ بَعْدِ ذَاكَ مَعَ الْغَلَاقِ لَا رَأْفَةٌ وَلَا إِبْقَاءُ
Translation: Then, after that, came a cavalry force with al-Ghalāq: no mercy and no sparing.
Thumma orders events in a sequence. Khayl can indicate horses and, contextually, a cavalry force. Maʿa al-Ghalāq is a particular reference within the narrative; the source alone does not justify inventing a full identity for it.
Lā raʾfah wa-lā ibqāʾ is parallel negation: no compassion and no sparing. Repetition creates the poem’s harshest martial tone.