had traced the name “Jaʿfar” on her cheek with ghāliya (1), a costly perfume. Al-Mutawakkil gazed at it and then recited:
To her who wrote upon her cheek, in musk, the word “Jaʿfar”—
My very soul be the ransom for the place where that musk has left its trace. (2)
If she has lodged a single line of musk upon her cheek,
She has lodged within my heart whole chapters of love.
O you whose inmost wish is none but Jaʿfar—
May Allah give Jaʿfar to drink from the nectar of your radiant teeth.
And you, the slave-girl of a master whose right hand holds dominion,
Obedient to him in what he conceals and makes manifest.
He said: Then al-Mutawakkil ordered ʿArīb (3), and she sang these verses.
Al-Fath ibn Khāqān (4) said: I entered upon al-Mutawakkil one day and found him with his head bowed, deep in thought. I asked, “Commander of the Faithful, why are you pensive? By Allah, no one on earth enjoys a more pleasant life or a more tranquil mind than you.” He replied, “Happier than I (5) is a man who owns a spacious house, has a righteous wife, and enjoys ready provision; he does not know us that we might trouble him, nor does he need us that we might disdain him.”
Al-Mutawakkil was beloved by his subjects and upheld the sunnah among them. Some compared him to al-Ṣiddīq for repelling the apostates until they returned to the religion, and to ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz for restoring the wrongfully seized properties of the Umayyads. He revived the sunnah after innovation had spread and extinguished innovation after it had become widespread and notorious. May Allah have mercy on him. (6)
Someone saw him in a dream after his death, seated in light. He asked, “Are you al-Mutawakkil?” He answered, “I am al-Mutawakkil.” “What has Allah done with you?” he said. “He forgave me,” he replied. I asked, “For what reason?” He said, “For a small portion of the sunnah that I revived.”
Al-Khaṭīb (7) relates from Ṣāliḥ ibn Aḥmad that, on the night al-Mutawakkil died, he saw in a dream as though a man were being raised to the heavens while a voice proclaimed:
A sovereign is led to the Sovereign—just, bountiful in pardon, never unjust.
He also narrates from ʿAmr ibn Shaybān al-Ḥalabī, who said: “On the night al-Mutawakkil was killed I heard someone saying…”