Ḥayṣ Bayṣ answered on the spot:
(1) “He never knew that my ‘sleep’ was but a stratagem set up to obtain his union, once wakefulness had exhausted every ruse.”

Abū al-Muẓaffar, the grandson of Ibn al-Jawzī, (2) said: “The heirs of the vizier Ibn Hubayra were reduced to selling their very clothes and furnishings, and even the books the vizier had endowed for his madrasa were put up for sale. Al-Bustān (3) of Abū al-Layth al-Samarqandī on heart-softening counsels, penned in an elegant script and gilded, was sold for two dāniqs and a grain, though it had been worth ten dinars. Someone exclaimed, ‘How cheap this Bustān is!’

“Jamāl al-Dīn ibn al-Ḥusayn replied, ‘Because of the heavy land-tax on it,’ hinting that it was an endowment. He was immediately seized, beaten, and thrown into prison.

“I say: After him the vizier Abū Jaʿfar Aḥmad ibn al-Baladī (4) assumed office. He began to hound the family of Ibn Hubayra, arrested ʿAwn al-Dīn’s two sons, Muḥammad and Ẓafar (5), then executed them. A grievous calamity followed—may Allah, by His grace, grant us safety.

“I read before Aḥmad ibn Isḥāq ibn al-Wabrī; he tells you that al-Ḥasan ibn Isḥāq al-Kātib informed us; Abū al-Muẓaffar Yaḥyā ibn Muḥammad, the vizier, informed us, saying:

‘I recited before al-Muqtafī li-Amr Allāh Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-ʿAbbāsī, and he related to you: Abū al-Barakāt Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd…’