and employed him in the Chancery.

al-ʿImād said: He passed a blissful life, leaving no righteous deed unperformed, no covenant of Paradise unstrengthened, and no bond of charity unsealed. His benefactions upon people’s necks and his endowments outstrip all reckoning, especially the endowments he set aside for ransoming captives. He aided the Mālikīs and the Shāfiʿīs by founding a madrasah, and supported orphans by establishing a kuttāb. He was a judge where rights were concerned and decisive where realities were at stake, while the sultan obeyed him without reserve. No province was opened except with the keys of his counsel and the keys of his wealth and munificence. I myself was counted among his good works and numbered among his favors.

His calligraphy was like battalions of victory; his reed-pen, the marvel of the age; his mastery, a craftsman of benevolence; his phrasing, a breath that untied the knots of sorcery. His eloquence adorned the state and perfected the realm, and gave the Ṣalāḥian era precedence over all other ages. He annulled the styles of the ancients by the forms he introduced and rendered them more eloquent through his originality. Never did I find him repeat a supplication in any letter, nor reuse a phrase in any discourse … until he exclaimed:

“To whom, after him, will delegations ride?
From whom shall benefit be derived?
In whose person will sovereignty reside?
And for whom will felicity abide?”

Ibn Khallikān (1) says: He served as vizier to Sultan Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn ibn Ayyūb.

Hibat Allāh ibn Sanāʾ al-Mulk then composed a poem, of which these verses are:

Time said to one who sought her (2):
“May your right hand be dust-covered—you are not among her lords; (3)
Go your way—you are not of her lords;
Turn back—you are no peer among her equals.” (4)