Al-Bannānī the poet:
Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn al-Muhannā ibn Muḥammad, the famed poet known as al-Bannānī (1). He praised caliphs, viziers, amirs and others; he lived to a ripe old age (2). His verse is delicate, graceful, and witty. Among his lines are the following (3):

(From al-Basīṭ)
Unjustly you rebuke a lover smitten by passion (4) …
while for other enamoured souls you show indulgence.

O censor of the love-struck, had you seen the one who slew him—
with but a cheek (5) and a curling lock—you would excuse him.

I would ransom the one whose magical (6) eyes tutor me:
whenever he sets out to kill me, they teach me how to bewitch him.

He spends the night in easeful sleep while I keep vigil till dawn;
he forgets me, yet I remember him.

He also said:

(Majzūʾ al-Kāmil)
At dawn she came, passing the cup among the reproachers,
trailing her hem through the bowers;

within the folds of her veils she sways her slender waist
as drooping branches sway.

She leans toward the supple bough
whenever it straightens or bends.

White is the hue of her cheek as it deepens,
while the colour of the rose pales in fear.

The offenders witnessed her union,
but her aloofness is a poison that kills.

Abū Saʿīd al-Ḥasan ibn Khālid (7) ibn al-Mubārak [ibn Mukhtar] (8), the Christian from Mardān, nicknamed al-Waḥīd: In his youth he devoted himself to the sciences of the ancients, mastered them and excelled therein. He also possessed a commanding skill in polished verse. Of that is the following—may Allah curse him:

(From al-Ṭawīl)
A letter reached me, penned by fingers
whose overflow contains such oceans that even the sea (9) draws from it.