When she was to present a poem, Shijo Chunagon (vice-councilor of state - FUJIWARA no Sadayori) asked her maliciously 'if she had already sent a messenger to her mother in Tango (Izumi Shikibu lived in Tango, where her husband was working) in order to ask her to compose a poem instead, and if the messenger had already come back yet,' so it is said that she composed a poem on the spot.
歌合に歌を詠進することになった小式部内侍に、四条中納言（藤原定頼）が「丹後のお母さん（和泉式部は当時、夫の任国である丹後に下っていた）の所に、代作を頼む使者は出しましたか。使者は帰って来ましたか」などと意地の悪い質問をしたのに対し、その場で詠んだ歌とされている。