Ibn al-Jawzi ⦗1⦘ said: “He was witty and light-hearted, gifted with charming anecdotes. He had seen much of life, associated with men of acumen, and used to attend my gatherings; we corresponded regularly. On one occasion I addressed him with excessive reverence in a letter ⦗2⦘, so he replied:

In the mukhaḷḷaʿ al-basīṭ metre:
You have raised me so high in your letter
that I fear the excess will turn to loss; ⦗3⦘
Pitch your address to a peer like me,
and do not abandon our settled course. ⦗4⦘

He also wrote:

In the mutaqārib metre:
When an old man feels within himself fresh vigor,
that is but death in a hidden guise;
Do you not see how the lamp-flame flares
just once before its light dies? ⦗5⦘

Ghazi ibn Zanki ⦗6⦘ ibn Aq-Sunqur ⦗7⦘, King Sayf al-Din, lord of Mosul, was the brother of Nur al-Din Mahmud—first ruler of Aleppo and later of Damascus ⦗8⦘. Sayf al-Din was among the very best of kings: exemplary in conduct, pure in heart, handsome in appearance, brave and generous. Each day he had one hundred sheep slaughtered for his army and thirty for his mamluks; on the day of Eid he sacrificed one thousand heads, not counting cattle and poultry. He was the first of the frontier rulers whose standard was borne above his head, and he ordered the troops to mount only with sword and mace. He built a madrasa in Mosul and a ribat for the Sufis. The poet al-Hayṣ Bayṣ ⦗9⦘ praised him, so he rewarded him with one thousand dinars in cash and a robe of honor. When he died of fever in Jumada al-Akhar of this year, he was buried in the aforementioned madrasa. He was forty years old, and his reign after his father lasted three years and fifty days—may Allah have mercy on him.

Naẓar al-Khadim ⦗10⦘ was amir of the Hajj caravan for more than twenty years. He transmitted hadith and studied under Ibn al-Zaghuni,