Who now will uphold high ambition, who will scale the lofty summits—[man lil-hudā] (who will guard true guidance?) (1)—who will defend them? Who will rise to the field of valor (2), who will pour forth liberality?

He sought that his dominion endure in the everlasting realm, (3) for he never trusted the permanence of a fleeting earthly throne.

He was an ocean whose beneficence turned dry land into sea, and by his sword the coastal regions were opened.

In his days the people of truth were exalted, and by his might they brought down the people of falsehood.

Among his earliest conquests was Jerusalem (4); it has secured for him a merit that no rival can contest.

I would never have begged the heavens to drench your grave (5), for I saw your generosity shaming the very downpour.

So may the good pleasure of Allah water you, for I am not content with the mere watering of the pouring clouds.

[A report of what he left behind and something of his biography]

Al-ʿImād and others relate: he left in his treasury nothing of gold save a single piece (6)—that is (7) one Tyrian dinar (8)—and thirty-six dirhams.

Others say it was forty-seven dirhams, and he left no house, no real estate, no farm, no roof (9), indeed nothing of any kind of property.

This was despite his having seventeen sons and one daughter; some of the others died during his lifetime, and those who outlived him numbered sixteen sons:

1 – The eldest of them was al-Malik al-Afḍal Nūr al-Dīn ʿAlī, born in Egypt in the year 565 AH on the night of ʿĪd al-Fiṭr.

2 – [Then al-ʿAzīz ʿImād al-Dīn Abū al-Fatḥ ʿUthmān, likewise born in Egypt in Jumādā al-Ūlā of the year 567 AH] (10).

3 – Then al-Ẓāfir Muẓaffar al-Dīn Abū al-ʿAbbās al-Khaḍir (11), born in Egypt in Shaʿbān of the year 568 AH, and he was the full brother of al-Afḍal.