and heard ḥadith from al-Silafī, and he left a celebrated dīwān (collection of poetry) together with several literary treatises, having also spent some time working in the Chancery of Correspondence (Dīwān al-Tarassul).

Ibn Khallikān (1) said: “He is Hibat Allah, son of the judge al-Rashīd Abū al-Faḍl Jaʿfar ibn al-Muʿtamid Sanāʾ al-Mulk al-Saʿdī. He was one of the leading nobles and dignitaries, a man of considerable luxury and abundant good fortune. A series of letters circulated between him and al-Qāḍī al-Fāḍil, and he is the poet who said (2):

If the Basran logician had glimpsed the pearl of her smile,
he would never have doubted that it is the peerless gem itself.

And should anyone claim that a bamboo cane matches her stature,
then tell him: beware, lest her figure hear that claim!

He also wrote (3):

A maiden whose very face mocks the full moon with its beauty,
whose mouth derides the finest wine with its sweetness.

Nothing is lovelier (4) than the glow that kindles her cheek
upon the water—save her beauty and my restraint.

The heart swears it will forget; yet it never forgets,
and even swears that it never swore at all.

He died in Ramadan (5) of the year 608 AH, at a little over sixty-six years of age (6).

246 – ʿAfīfa bint Abī Bakr Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad *
ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ḥasan ibn