We praised the One who restored the caliph Jaʿfar to health—despite the elders of error and unbelief.

He was but a full moon that a passing eclipse had darkened, only to lift and leave the moon resplendent once more.

His soundness is honour and strength for the faith, while his sickness would have been a crippling blow to it.

You fell ill and so afflicted all creation; the cities themselves grew dark from sheer dread.

Yet when the people perceived signs of your recovery, they revived—they had been like sleepers (1) on burning coals.

The safety of our world is the safety of Jaʿfar; so may he remain healthy and unharmed until the end of time.

An imam who extends virtue (2) and piety to all, ever near to God-fearingness and far from sin.

She has many other exquisite and surpassing poems; what we have cited suffices, and Allah is the One who grants success to what is right.

Ibn ʿAsakir (3) said: I have been informed that she was born in 181 AH and died in 277 AH at Sāmarrāʾ, having lived ninety-six years.

[Then the year 278 AH began]

Ibn al-Jawzi (4) said: In Muḥarram of this year a star rose bearing a jummah (5), and the jummah later turned into a tail (6).

He (7) added: In the same year the Nile’s water receded—something unprecedented and unmentioned in earlier reports—so prices in Egypt soared dramatically.

He (8) also said: ʿUbayd Allah b. Sulayman b. Wahb was invested with the vizierate.

He (9) further said: In Muḥarram of that year al-Muwaffaq Abū Aḥmad returned from the frontier campaign; the people went out to meet him as far as Nahrawān. He entered Baghdad suffering from gout, settled in his house in early Ṣafar, and died a few days later, as will be detailed in his biography for this year.