Muhammad Quli Qutub Shah was the third son of Ibrahim Quli Qutb Shah Wali and Bhagirathi. He was an accomplished poet and wrote his poetry in Persian, Telugu and Urdu. As the first author in the Urdu language, he composed his verses in the Persian "diwan" style, and his poems consisted of verses relating to a single topic, "gazal-i musalsal". Muhammad Quli's "Kulliyat" comprised 1800 pages, over half were "gazals", "qasidas" on one hundred pages, while the rest contained over 300 pages of "matnawi" and "marsiyas."