Ibn Shanabudh invoked a curse against Ibn Muqla when the latter ordered him to be beaten, and Ibn Muqla never prospered after that.

Ibn Muqla the Vizier (1)—one of the celebrated court secretaries—was Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥasan (2) ibn ʿAbd Allah, Abū ʿAlī, commonly known as Ibn Muqla the Vizier.

At the beginning of his life he was in straitened circumstances, [of little means] (3), yet his fortunes rose until he held the vizierate for three caliphs: al-Muqtadir, al-Qāhir, and al-Rāḍī. He was deposed three times, and in the end his hand and his tongue were severed and he was imprisoned. He would draw water with his left hand and his teeth, and even after the amputation he continued to write with his right hand just as he had done when it was whole. His calligraphy ranked among the strongest scripts, as is well known (4).

While he was vizier he built himself a residence. For its construction he assembled a group of astrologers, who agreed that it should be begun at a specific hour; following their advice, he laid the foundation of its wall between the two evening prayers. Scarcely had it been completed before it collapsed and became a heap of rubble.

He also owned an enormous bustān, several ajriba—that is, faddāns—in size, covered completely by a silk net (5). It teemed with birds—turtledoves (6), nightingales, parrots, bulbuls, peacocks, and francolins (7)—and with great numbers of gazelles, wild cattle and asses, ostriches, and even camels. Yet before long, after all its freshness and splendor, the whole estate fell into ruin and vanished.

A poet composed the following lines about him when he built his mansion and the surrounding court:

Say to Ibn Muqla—[gently] (8), do not be hasty;
Be patient, for you are wrapped in the stuff of dreams.

You labor to raise, from the ruins of other men’s houses,
A house that will itself be demolished in a few days.