Arab king's flat guarded by a bit of muscle, I see (8)

'arab king's flat guarded' is the definition.
I don't know anything about this answer so I cannot tell whether this works.

'by a bit of muscle i see' is the wordplay.
'by' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'a bit of' becomes 'dull' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'muscle' becomes 'ab' (short for abdominal muscle).
'i see' becomes 'ah' (exclamation used to indicate understanding).
'dull' put after 'ab' is 'abdull'.
'abdull'+'ah'='ABDULLAH'

Can you help me to learn more?