—so we shall remain where we are; it is enough for us to enjoy happiness with honour and good health.

He therefore set off with their letter, and they sent him priceless heirlooms from the Caliphate’s treasury. The emir ʿAbd al-Rahman was delighted with them and judged their counsel sound. Later another messenger came from Syria with a further letter from the women, accompanied by gifts and presents—among them pomegranates from the Rusafa of their grandfather Hisham. Al-Dakhil rejoiced at this. Present with him was Safar ibn ʿUbayd al-Kalaʿi, a man of the Jordan district; he took some of the pomegranates, planted their seeds in his village until they became trees, handsomer still, then brought their fruit to the emir. They multiplied there and came to be known as the safari variety. He also planted some of them at the Rusafa estate (1).

Al-Dakhil once saw a solitary palm tree at al-Rusafa; it stirred his yearning and reminded him of his homeland, and he said (2):

A palm appeared to us in the middle of al-Rusafa,
Set here in the western land, far from the country of palms.
I said, “She is my likeness in exile and separation,
In the long bending away from my children and my family (3).
You grew in a land where you are a stranger;
So, like you—banished and far removed—am I.
May the returning rain-clouds water you with their bounty,
Pouring as the Twin Si-māk stars draw down the heavy rain.”