176 – My father said: Abu al-Samh al-Taʾi recited to us, on behalf of a man from the clan of al-ʿAtik:
[in rajaz meter]

By Allah, were it not for little children,
whose faces shine like moons,
eyes are bewildered by their beauty—
they are the very stuff of boasting when pride is flaunted.
One house in al-ʿAtik gathers them all,
yet I fear that hardship may touch them;
kinship has been severed between them,
though misfortune and prosperity alike might still protect them.
With their wings the birds take flight;
so when a haughty king beheld me
standing at his gate before the break of dawn