“My wares fall short of my aspiration,
and my aspiration falls short of my wealth;
so salt and ashnān, my lord,
are the finest gifts a man like me can send.”

Al-Ḥasan ibn Sahl took the two pouches to al-Maʾmūn, who was much pleased. He ordered that both bags be emptied, refilled with gold dinars, and returned to that man of letters.

When al-Maʾmūn’s son Jaʿfar was born, people came to offer every manner of congratulation. One of the poets (1) recited in his praise:

“May Allah prolong your life again and again
until you behold this son of yours a grandfather;
then may he be ransomed as you are ransomed,
so that when he appears it is as though you yourself appear—
a form and stature the very image of you,
girded with his own glory, cloaked in honour.” (2)

Al-Maʾmūn ordered that ten thousand dirhams be given to the poet.

While he was in Damascus a great sum of money reached him after he had previously become penniless. He had complained of his state to his brother al-Muʿtaṣim, whereupon treasuries amounting to thirty million dirhams arrived from Khurasan. He rode out—accompanied by the qāḍī Yaḥyā ibn Aktham—to review the caravan, the camels and their loads all splendidly adorned. When they entered the city he said, “Magnanimity forbids that we should keep all this while the people look on.” Still mounted, his foot in the stirrup, he distributed twenty-four million dirhams on the spot (3).

Among his graceful verses are the following (4):

“My tongue keeps your secrets sealed,
yet my salty tears divulge what I conceal;
were it not for my tears I would hide my passion,
and were it not for passion, no tears would be mine.”

One night he sent a servant (5) to fetch a slave-girl, but the servant lingered, and she refused to come unless the Caliph himself came to her. So al-Maʾmūn improvised (6):