White-haired, wrapped in a billowing cloak and broad of frame,
the envoy of the Persian king travels to the drowsing sage. (1)
Mighty, grief-laden she-camels have carried me across the earth; (2)
they fear neither thunder nor the uncertainties of time.
They lift me over crags and plunge me down ravines, (3)
until I reached a waste of naked rock and chalk, (4)
where the wind swirls with the foul dust of dung, (5)
as though he had been wrenched from the embrace of twin bereaved mothers. (6)
He said:
When Satīḥ heard these verses he raised his head and said, “ʿAbd al-Masīḥ—astride a swift-striding camel—has come to Satīḥ, who now stands at the very brink of his grave. The king of the House of Sāsān has sent you because the portico quaked, the sacred fires were extinguished, and the Mubadhān dreamed: he saw unruly camels leading fleet Arab horses that crossed the Tigris and spread through its lands.
O ʿAbd al-Masīḥ, when the recitation becomes abundant, the bearer of the staff appears, the valley of al-Samāwah overflows, Lake Sāwah dries up, and the fire of Persia dies away, then Syria will no longer be Syria for Satīḥ. From among them kings and queens will reign—equal in number to the lattice-work balconies—and whatever is destined is sure to come.”
Satīḥ expired on the spot. ʿAbd al-Masīḥ then rose, mounted his beast, and said:
[al-Basīṭ]
It also appears in manuscript Ḥ and in the Mukhtaṣar of Ibn ʿAsākir (witnesses B and T; I believe this is a scribal error). Al-ṣirār al-udhun: “the ear embellisher,” i.e. one who pierces and shapes the ear. (Manal al-Ṭālib 1/140).
(1) al-qīl: a pre-Islamic king of Yemen, inferior to the Great King. al-wasan: sleep; here it denotes a dream seen by the mubazdan. yasrī: from al-sarāʾ, “night journey.” (Manal al-Ṭālib 1/138; al-Muʿjam al-Wāsiṭ)
(2) al-ʿalandāh: the tall, magnificent she-camel. shajan: creatures whose limbs are interlaced like the branches of a tree; also narrated as shazan (active). (Manal al-Ṭālib; al-Lisān, s.v. ʿaland, shajan)
(3) al-wajan (with sukun on jīm and fatḥa): firm, solid ground. (al-Lisān, s.v. wajan). It is also narrated: tarfaʿunī wajnāʾan tahū min wajan, and al-wajnāʾ: the strong, sturdy she-camel. (Manal al-Ṭālib 1/139)
(4) In Ḥ: al-ʿaṭn; this reading is confirmed in T, al-Lisān, and Manal al-Ṭālib. al-jājī: plural of juʾjūʾ, “chest.” al-qaṭn: plural of qaṭnah, “the area between the thighs”; some read it with kasra on ṭ, qaṭn. (al-Lisān, s.v. qaṭn). al-ʿārī: one whose flesh and fat have been stripped away—so that rapid travel has made him gaunt. (Manal al-Ṭālib 1/139)
(5) al-būghāʾ: fine dust. al-daman: that which coagulates, i.e. collects and hardens. (al-Lisān, s.v. būgh, daman)
(6) ḥathḥath: he hurried and hastened. thakkan: a Hijazi mountain called al-Ḥuḍn or al-Janb. The verse means that the dust raised by his horse’s speed made it seem like a roused leopard descending these slopes. (al-Lisān, s.v. ḥathth, thakkan; Manal al-Ṭālib 1/141). In the Mukhtaṣar Tārīkh Ibn ʿAsākir (Ibn Manẓūr) it is also given as jafanay thakkan.
(7) As in Ḥ and T; and in the Mukhtaṣar Tārīkh Ibn ʿAsākir (Ibn Manẓūr): ilā.