166 – Sulayman ibn Abi Shaykh related to me; he said: A man from the tribe of Azd, when a son of his went missing, recited (in the long metre):

Would that I knew where Muhammad spent last night,
Or where the break of dawn found him, free of the dark.

Will there ever come a night in all my days when I shall see him
So I can press the basil of my heart against my breast?

Whenever someone says, “A traveller from your land has come,”
My very soul flies toward him, bursting out of my chest.

I stand as though some blood-bond joined us,
Yet no tie of womb or marriage binds us at all.

Still, my spirit revives at the mere mention of his name
As parched earth quickens beneath a heavy, murky rain.

So may Allah never make the farewell that took place at Dhi al-Athl
The final pledge that joins us to Abu Bakr.