326 AH. He would then strap a pen to his forearm and write in an elegant script; he was even able to write with the left hand (1). Some said of him, “He is a scribe aspiring to the vizierate.”

When Bujkam drew near to Baghdad he summoned Abū ʿAlī, cut out his tongue, imprisoned him for a time, and he was struck by dysentery (2). He would draw water with his left hand, holding the rope in his mouth, and endured hardship until he died. He was buried within the Palace grounds, but after his family petitioned, the grave was opened, his body was handed over to them, and his son Abū al-Ḥusayn buried him in his own house (3).

Al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī ibn Muqla (4) related: “One day the vizier Abū ʿAlī was eating. After washing his hand he noticed a yellow dot of sweet syrup on his garment. He opened the inkwell, dipped his pen into it, blotted out the stain, and said, ‘That is a flaw.’ Such is the mark of one’s craft:

Saffron is the perfume of maidens,
while the ink of the inkwell is the perfume of men (5).”

Abū al-Faḍl ibn al-Maʾmūn said: “Abū ʿAlī ibn Muqla recited to us, of his own composition:

When death comes at its appointed time,
disregard the counsel of physicians (6);
And if the one for whom you pine is gone,
then patience is the practice of the prudent;
Nothing has ever visited the children of Adam
more bitter than the loss of loved ones (7).”