whereupon he devoted himself to study and reading. He attained insight, distinguished himself in the doctrine of the ʿUbaydiyyah, became adept at their allegorical interpretations, and excelled in their habit of turning realities upside-down (1).

He is the one who said:
“I wedded the white Indian blades to dusky spears,
so that their heads scattered sparks instead of bridal gifts;
And thus the heights of glory are never lawfully taken in marriage
save where lifetimes themselves are severed.” (2)

He then began leading the pilgrims along the Sarāt route (3) for fifteen years, and people would say to him, “You will one day rule all of Yemen.” He would rebuke anyone who said so. Yet in the year 429 AH he rose in rebellion on Mount Mashār (4) with sixty men. They withdrew to a lofty peak, and before nightfall twenty thousand had surrounded them, declaring, “Come down, or we shall kill you by hunger and thirst.”

He replied, “I have done this only out of fear that someone else might take possession of it. If you allow us, we shall guard it; otherwise we will come down to you.” He deceived them, and they withdrew. Only a few months passed before he had built and fortified it (5); every ambitious and stalwart man flocked to him, their numbers swelled, and his power grew formidable.

He openly proclaimed allegiance to the Egyptian imam al-Mustanṣir, yet he feared the success of the ruler of Tihāmah, so he flattered him and plotted against him until he made him drink a potion in the company of a comely slave-girl he had presented to him. He then seized the domains of Yemen in the year 455 AH, and from the pulpit of al-Janad (6) he declared, “On a day like this we shall preach from the pulpit of Aden.” Whereupon a man said: