«وَلَوْ مَلَكَ فَصَاحَةَ سَحْبَانَ بْنِ وَائِلٍ»
Even if he possessed the eloquence of Suḥbān ibn Wāʾil.
Suḥbān ibn Wāʾil is invoked as a recognized emblem of powerful Arabic oratory. The name is a literary benchmark, not a participant in the scene.
The clause with wa-law makes a concession: even if a contemporary writer were exceptionally fluent, the assembly believes that he would still remain dependent on earlier masters. That exaggeration reveals how strongly the gathering privileges the past.