and I am one enriched with modesty and chastity (1),
even though no substantial wealth has ever been mine (2).

The judge (3) al-Fāḍil: the erudite Imām, master of the eloquent and the articulate, Abū ʿAlī ʿAbd al-Raḥīm, son of the chief judge al-Ashraf Abū al-Majd ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥasan ibn al-Baysānī (4), the most illustrious lord, al-Qāḍī al-Fāḍil.

His father (5) had been a qāḍī in Ascalon, and during the Fāṭimid era he dispatched his son to Egypt, where the latter occupied himself with chancery composition under Shaykh Abū al-Fatḥ ibn Qādūs (6) and others. He soon outshone the secretaries of every land, as far as Baghdad to the east and to the west alike, whether near or far; in his age he had no equal, assistant, or counterpart, nor has anyone up to our own day (7).

When King Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn (8) established his rule in Egypt, he made him his secretary, companion, vizier, counsellor, seat-fellow, and intimate. He (9) was dearer to him than his own family and children, more precious than his movable or inherited wealth. Together they cooperated until they opened the provinces (10): the king with his sword and spear, and the judge with his tongue (11), his pen, and his eloquence.

Despite his great wealth, prestige, and high station, al-Qāḍī al-Fāḍil was lavish in almsgiving, beneficence, fasting, and prayer. He (12) maintained the practice of completing a full recitation of the Quran every day and night, in addition to further supererogatory reading. Tender-hearted, of excellent conduct, pure in heart and inner state, he founded a madrasa in Egypt for the Shāfiʿī and Mālikī schools and endowed properties for the liberation of Muslim captives from the hands of the Christians. He amassed nearly one hundred thousand books, a feat unmatched by any vizier, scholar, king (13)—or secretary.

He was born (14) in the year thirty-two.