248 – He said: One of the scholars from the descendants of Suhayb related to me, saying: A man from Basra told me that Ṣāliḥ al-Marrī once passed by a ruined palace. In its courtyard lay two graves, and beside them sat a black man. He said, “O Ṣāliḥ, behold a lesson: these two were the lords of this palace, and now they have ended up as you see.” He added that the following was written on one of the graves:

O caravan, travel on today and take a warning,
For before long you too will become a lesson as we are.

We once possessed the world in all its delights,
Yet we took no heed, nor would we ever refrain.

Then death from that world loosed its arrows upon us,
Leaving us with neither eye to see nor trace to be found.