So move on and leave us, for your final destination is death—however firmly your strength may prop you up.

Lubad, by the way, was the last of Luqman’s ever-living eagles.

Muʿādh was a close companion of the poet al-Kumayt. It is said that he lived for ninety years and died in 187 AH. Only a small collection of verses is attributed to him.

As for the term ḥarrāʾ, it denotes a merchant who deals in garments from Herāt. Were it not for this well-known saying, we would hardly have heard of the man himself, and he transmitted very little.

128 – ʿAlī ibn Mus-hir, Abū al-Ḥasan al-Qurashī * (ʿ)

A distinguished scholar and ḥāfiẓ, Abū al-Ḥasan al-Qurashī al-Kūfī served as the chief judge of Mosul. He was the brother of the judge of Jabbul (1), ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mus-hir—the same simple-minded fellow who, when word reached him that the caliph al-Maʾmūn was approaching the Jabbul district, urged the townspeople to extol him before the caliph. Meeting only lukewarm interest and broken promises, he dressed in his finest clothes, groomed his beard, and took his stand on the bank of the Tigris. When al-Maʾmūn’s boat came abreast of him, he offered the formal salutation due to the caliphate and called out, “Commander of the Believers! We enjoy well-being and justice under our judge Ibn Mus-hir.”

At that, the caliph burst into laughter