her servant Maysarah, and how a cloud would shade him in the searing midday heat. Over this Waraqah composed a number of poems—some of which we have already quoted—among them the following:

[Metre: al-Wāfir]
I have persisted—indeed, persisted in remembrance—
over a matter that has long drawn forth lamenting tears;
and after report upon report from Khadījah,
my waiting, O Khadījah, has grown prolonged.
Within the valley of the two Makkan towns I hover in hope,
longing, at your word, to witness his emergence.
Because of what you told us from the saying of a priest
among the monks—I would hate to see it distorted—
that Muḥammad shall one day hold sway over a people
and will vanquish whoever takes the stand against him;
that in every land he will unveil a radiant light
by which mankind will be set straight lest it deviate;
that whoever wages war on him will meet with ruin
while whoever makes peace with him will find success.
Oh, would that, when that day arrives, I might behold it
and be the very first of them to enter!
Though Quraysh may loathe the matter,
though Mecca itself may roar with outcry,
I hope—through what they all detest—to rise upward
to the Lord of the Throne when they have fallen low.
And should they remain and I remain, events shall unfold
at which the unbelievers will wail in anguish.

He also said in another ode:

[Metre: al-Ṭawīl]
True reports have reached me concerning Muḥammad—
a sincere well-wisher conveys them when he is away—
that the son of ʿAbd Allāh, Aḥmad, is a Messenger
to everyone encompassed by these mountain passes.
I am convinced he will be raised in truth,
just as the two servants, Hūd and Ṣāliḥ, were sent—
likewise Moses and Abraham—until there appears for him
a splendor and a clear, unrolled Scripture.
All the clan of Luʾayy ibn Ghālib will follow him,
their vigorous youths and their grey-haired chiefs alike.
If I survive until people witness his era,
I shall greet it with gladness and rejoicing love;
but if not—then know, O Khadījah—
across the wide earth I shall wander far from your land.