[22] Abūl Mahfūz, surnamed Marūf, was a celebrated saint of Kareh, a village in Baghdad. He was the son of a fire-worshipper, and was born A.D. 813, during the reign of Caliph Māmūn, son of the celebrated Hārūn-ar-Rashīd.
[23] Abū-al-Hasan Kūshyār was a celebrated astronomer and the tutor of Anicenna.
[24] Luqman was a famous Greek philosopher, and is supposed by some to have been the author of Æsop’s Fables.
[25] Bakhtyār literally means “fortunate”; the play on the word is, therefore, obvious.
[26] “Darkness” and “light” are used metaphorically in the sense of “falseness” and “truth.”
[27] Khwarazm is situated to the east of the Caspian Sea, near the mouth of the Oxus.
[28] I.e. in this transient and fleeting world.
[29] Korah, the cousin of Moses and the proverbial miser of the Easterns.
[30] I.e. if you possess merit.
[31] A famous hero; the Hercules of the Persians.