Thou hast with favours overwhelmed me, benefits and largesse ✿ And gracious doles my memory ne’er ceaseth to retrace.
All men from mighty main, Thy grace and goodness, drain and drink; ✿ And in their need Thou, only Thou, to them art refuge-place!
Thou heapest up, O Lord, Thy mercy-signs on mortal men; ✿ Thou pardonest man’s every sin though he be high or base:
So for the sake of him who came to teach mankind in ruth ✿ Prophet, pure, truthful-worded scion of the noblest race;
Ever be Allah’s blessing and His peace on him and all ✿ His aids[[261]] and kin while pilgrims fare his noble tomb to face!
And on his helpmeets[[262]] one and all, Companions great and good, ✿ Through time Eternal while the bird shall sing in shady wood!
And thereafter Khalifah continued to pay frequent visits to the Caliph Harun al-Rashid, with whom he found acceptance and who ceased not to overwhelm him with boons and bounty: and he abode in the enjoyment of the utmost honour and happiness and joy and gladness and in riches more than sufficing and in rank ever rising; brief, a sweet life and a savoury, pure as pleasurable, till there came to him the Destroyer of delights and the Sunderer of societies; and extolled be the perfection of Him to whom belong glory and permanence and He is the Living, the Eternal, who shall never die!
[186]. This is so rare, even amongst the poorest classes in the East, that it is mentioned with some emphasis.
[187]. A beauty amongst the Egyptians, not the Arabs.