—like fingernails, beneath which was exposed a brownish (1) layer that inclined toward yellow and was speckled (2) like poppy seed. The Sons of Shaybah gathered those splinters, kneaded them with musk and lac, and packed them into the fissures that had opened; the Stone then held together and has remained in that state to this very day—a fact plain to anyone who looks closely (3).

In the same year the bīmaristān (4) built by the vizier Muʾayyad al-Mulk, Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥasan al-Rukhajī, vizier to Sharaf al-Mulk in Wāsiṭ, was opened. He appointed storekeepers for it and supplied drinks, medicines, pharmaceutical substances, and everything else that might be required—Allah knows best. He is sufficient for us and the best Guardian.

Among the notable persons who died this year was ʿAlī ibn Hilāl (5), Abū al-Ḥasan Ibn al-Bawwāb, the scribe famed for his distinctive hand.

He kept company with Abū al-Ḥusayn Ibn Samʿūn the preacher, who used to give lessons in the city’s congregational mosque. More than one authority praised Ibn al-Bawwāb for his piety and trustworthiness; as for his calligraphy and the method he devised, they are too well-known to require comment. His script was, if anything, clearer than that of Abū ʿAlī Ibn Muqla (6), and after him no one surpassed him. Save for a few, writers in virtually every region today follow his style.

Ibn al-Jawzī said: He died on Saturday, the second of Jumādā al-Ākhira of this year, and was buried in the Bāb Ḥarb cemetery. Someone composed an elegy for him, including the lines:
Grief fills the hearts you once delighted (7),
And sleeplessness the eyes you once set at ease;
What fragrance can life retain now that you have left it?
What dawn can night expect after your departure?

Ibn Khallikān said: He was also called Ibn al-Sitri because his father tended the curtain of the doorway, and he was known as Ibn al-Bawwāb. He learned calligraphy from Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Asad ibn ʿAlī ibn Saʿīd al-Bazzār, who had studied with al-Najjād and others and died in 410 AH. As for Ibn al-Bawwāb, he died in Jumādā al-Ūlā of this year, though some say in 423 AH. A poet lamented him, saying: