By your life, it was not the outline of an abandoned dwelling where I once paused, nor the mere recollection (1) of the old meeting-places that stirred my grief;
Nor did the fading traces of the tents make my tears flow because I remembered the days of the graceful maidens.
Never did passion seize the reins of my will, nor did I resist it only to have it slacken my bridle.
I have seen what it does to those enamored of childish pleasures, and the humiliation and abasement they endure;
so I never let it aspire to conquer me, though it has claimed as many victims among mankind as can scarcely be counted.

I sought a brother of sound and unalloyed affection (2), one whose heart was faultless and whose tongue was kept safe (3);
but among those who call themselves brothers I found nothing but hypocrisy, whether they kept their distance or drew near.
The world of our age contains no real good: you behold pleasing forms that are empty of meaning.
Such is the description of them all, so that I can only say “So-and-so” or “So-and-so.”
And when I could find no free man willing to share with me the blows dealt by the turns of time,
I bore them with dignity and did not panic at whatever befell me.
In hardship I never cringed, begging fate, “Hold back, enough for me!”
Rather, I am tough-fibred, steadfast, firm of heart and collected in spirit.
High-souled, I will not choose a livelihood that comes to me by anything other than my sword or my tongue (4);
for glory won amid scorching flames where its seeker abides (5) is sweeter than abasement amid luxuriant gardens.

Al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn ʿAsākir included his biography in his History with his customary excellence, and he cited among his verses:
Do not envy the man of this world for his manner of living (6), nor for the fleeting pleasure whose joy is hastened.
Time is swifter than anything in its changes, and its workings are plain for all to see.
How many a person has drunk honey only to find his death in it, and how many have girded on a sword by which they were slain (7).

He died on Monday morning, the seventh of Dhū al-Ḥijjah of this very year, at the age of seventy-two, in the room he occupied in Darb al-Silsilah, next to the Niẓāmiyyah Madrasa. The people gathered in large numbers for his funeral, and they carried [naʿshahu].