—at a time when he was serving as governor over Khurasan—he found there the famous Fire-Temple venerated by the Magians; his own grandfather Barmak had once been among its attendants. Al-Fadl demolished part of the shrine but was unable to pull it down completely because of the strength of its construction, and in its place he built a mosque for Allah Most High.
It is related that while he was in prison he would recite the following verses and weep:
To Allah we lift our plaint for all that has befallen; in His hand alone lies the lifting of harm and trial.
We have left the world behind though once we were its people; we belong now neither to its living nor to its dead.
When the gaoler comes to us one day on some errand, we marvel and say, “This visitor has arrived from the world!”

Muḥammad ibn Umayyah, the poet and scribe (1): he came from a household in which every member was a cultivated poet, so that the verses of one are often confused with those of another. His poetry is polished and his panegyrics outstanding.

Manṣūr ibn al-Zibraqān (2) ibn Salamah, Abū al-Faḍl al-Numayrī, the poet, composed odes in praise of al-Rashīd. Originally from al-Jazīrah, he settled in Baghdad. It is said of his grandfather that he was nicknamed “The One Who Fed the Vulture a Ram,” for when he once entertained some guests and vultures began to circle overhead, he ordered that a ram be slaughtered for the birds so that his guests would not be disturbed—and it was done.
The poet said of him:
Your father is the leader of Banū Qāsiṭ, and your uncle is he who with his ram fed the vultures.
He left behind fine poems, transmitted songs from Kulthūm ibn ʿAmr, and that was the shaykh from whom he learned the art of singing.

Yūsuf, son of the judge Abū Yūsuf (3), heard ḥadith from al-Sarī ibn Yaḥyā and Yūnus ibn Abī Isḥāq. He engaged in raʾy-based jurisprudence, mastered fiqh, and was appointed judge of the eastern quarter of Baghdad during the lifetime of his father. By order of al-Rashīd he once led the people in the Friday prayer in the Manṣūr Mosque. He died in Rajab of this very year while still serving as judge in Baghdad.

[Then the year 193 AH began.]

Ibn Jarīr (4) said: In Muḥarram of that year al-Faḍl ibn Yaḥyā died. Ibn al-Jawzī, however, dated his death to 192 AH, as noted above (5), but the view of Ibn Jarīr is the more likely.
He also said: In that same year Saʿīd al-Jawharī passed away.