Prorgrammatically generated quicktab does not display content
I have found the solution to the problem through some experimentation. It appears that the value for bid must take the form of: module_name_delta_block_delta. To illustrate this, here is an example:

$tabs[] = array(
  'title' =&gt; t($title),
  'type' =&gt; 'block',
  'bid' =&gt; 'catalogue_search_delta_books_journals_search',
  'hide_title' =&gt; TRUE,
);


The module name is: catalogue_search.
Then you need the text: delta
Finally the block delta name: books_journals_search.

I did not see this documented anywhere so hopefully this will help others with the same problem.