(1) The Shaykh remained in the dungeon for eighteen months. A great many people rejoiced at his release and were overjoyed, while others were saddened and grew angry.

The eminent Shaykh, Imām Najm al-Dīn Sulaymān ibn ʿAbd al-Qawī al-Tūfī (2), composed an ode in his praise, of which the following lines are a sample:

Be patient, for in patience (3) lies all the relief you need from stratagems;
every hardship, if you persevere through it, becomes easy.

Whatever calamity strikes you will yield, without fail, one of two outcomes—be certain of it:
either it purges a sin so that you meet Allah purified,
or it is a trial through which you draw nearer to Him.

O Saʿd, we hope that you will be Saʿd (good fortune) for us,
and that your pasture provide, for those who come to graze, abundant sweet clover (4).

May the All-Merciful afflict through you a faction that has turned away
and grant benefit to those endowed with affection and composure.

O family of Taymiyyah, exalted in rank—your station (5) rises like a branch that reaches the very spheres of heaven.

You are the jewels of the universe, yet you dwell among a people whose minds have been imbued with deficiency;
they do not recognize your merit—had they but reason, they would have made their very eyelids your abode.

⦗90⦘ O you who have encompassed of the sciences of humankind that which the earliest generations, from their own day until this very hour, fell short of attaining.