They trod the path of death and disappeared, and we can already see that our own turn to arrive is near.

While they were still upon their couches and embroidered coverlets, their cheeks were handed over to the dust.

Nor is the tale concluded there; beyond that come the threatened punishment and the promised reward.

Even the physicians soon caught up with them— their snuffs and potions availed them nothing. (1)

A man in robust health goes to visit an invalid, yet he is nearer to death than the one he visits.

Another well-known line of his says:

“O you who gloat and mock because of the blows of Time— are you the one exempt and unimpaired?” (2)

He then recited the whole poem. I think he died in that period of suspension—Allah knows best.

47 – Sulaymān ibn ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān al-Umawī*
son of al-Ḥakam ibn Abī al-ʿĀṣ ibn Umayyah, the Caliph, Abū Ayyūb al-Qurashī, the Umayyad.

He was given the pledge of allegiance after his brother al-Walīd in the year 96 AH.

He owned a large residence at the site of Ṭahārat Jayrūn, and another he built for the caliphate in Darb Muḥriz, for which he raised a lofty yellow dome.

He was devout, eloquent, articulate, just, and fond of military expeditions.

It is said that he was reared in the desert.

He died of pleurisy.

The inscription on his signet ring read: “I believe in Allah sincerely.”

His mother—and the mother of al-Walīd—was Wallādah bint al-ʿAbbās ibn Ḥazan al-ʿAbsiyyah.

Sulaymān’s sons included: Yazīd, Qāsim, Saʿīd, Yaḥyā, ʿUbayd Allāh, ʿAbd al-Wāḥid, al-Ḥārith, and others.

Together with his brother Maslamah he outfitted armies on land and sea to confront Constantinople; they besieged it for a time until its people agreed to the building of a mosque there.

He was fair-skinned, large-faced, with joined eyebrows and handsome features; his hair fell upon his shoulders. He lived thirty-nine years and divided