to allow any of that. He knows the Shaykh better than all of them—both his learning and his devotion (1).
He then said, “I shall relate to you a remarkable incident that took place between the Sultan and Shaykh Taqi al-Din. It occurred when the Sultan travelled to Egypt, accompanied by the judges, the dignitaries, and the Syrian deputy al-Afram. After he entered Egypt ⦗100⦘ and returned to his realm—Salar and al-Shushankīr having fled and the Sultan’s authority now firmly established—he seated himself one day upon the throne of sovereignty in all the pomp of kingship (2). The leading emirs of Syria and Egypt were in attendance: the Egyptian judges to his right and the Syrian judges to his left; he even described to me how each of them was positioned according to (3) his rank.
“Among those present,” he continued, “was Ibn Ṣaṣrā on the Sultan’s left, beneath him the Grand Chancellor ʿAlī, the Ḥanafī judge (4); then the preacher Jalāl al-Din, followed by Ibn al-Zamlakānī.
“I,” he said (5), “was seated next to Ibn al-Zamlakānī, the people arrayed behind him, while the Sultan sat upon an elevated dais. As everyone remained (6) seated, the Sultan suddenly rose to his feet,