I said to them: "Think--even now, two thousand are on your track,
all laden with sword and spear, their captains in Persian mail!"
But when they would hearken not, I followed their road, though I
knew well they were fools, and that I walked not in Wisdom's way.
For am not I but one of the Ghazîyah? and if they err
I err with my house; and if the Ghazîyah go right, so I.
I read them my rede, one day, at Mun'araj al-Liwa:
the morrow, at noon, they saw my counsel as I had seen.
A shout rose, and voices cried, "The horsemen have slain a knight!"
I said, "Is it 'Abdallâh, the man whom you say is slain?"