of the Hereafter, up to His words: “So among them are the wretched and the fortunate” (Hud 103–105).

Then he cried out and wept, laid his face on the ground for a while, wiped it, and said, “Glorified is He who spoke this from pre-eternity! Glorified is He to whom this speech belongs!” I waited a while, then took my leave and said, “I seem to see a trace of anger on your face?”

He replied, “No. I merely recited something composed by a created being and then something from the speech of the Creator, and what you observe overtook me.” Thereupon I became certain of the soundness of his faith.

Through this same chain al-Silafī said: “I heard Abū Zakariyyā al-Tabrīzī say, ‘The best teacher I ever read with was Abū al-ʿAlāʾ (1).’”

And I heard Abū al-Makārim (2) in Abhar—he was one of the outstanding men of his age—say: “When Abū al-ʿAlāʾ died, eighty poets (3) gathered at his grave, and within a single week two hundred complete recitations of the Quran were finished there.” Al-Silafī then added: “In sum, he was a man of abundant merit, dazzling erudition, and deep knowledge of genealogy and the epic days of the Arabs. He had recited the Quran according to several transmissions and had heard hadith from trustworthy narrators. He composed copious poetry on monotheism, on establishing the proof of prophethood, on urging asceticism, and on reviving the paths of chivalry and magnanimity. As for the difficult passages of that poetry, he claimed to have written a commentary on them.”

Gharas al-Niʿmah said: “The vizier Abū Naṣr ibn Jahīr related to us, saying: The poet al-Manāzī (4) told me:
‘I met with Abū al-ʿAlāʾ and said, “What is this that people are reporting about you?” He replied:’