and the man in office is harsh of temper,
while the army inspector’s malady is sheer conceit.
He also said of the sultan (1) al-Malik al-ʿĀdil Sayf al-Dīn—may Allah Most High have mercy on him and pardon us (2):
[light metre]
The sovereign in whom we place our hopes
is rich in wealth yet narrow in expenditure;
A sword, so people claim, yet one that cuts
allowances and the stipends of men.
On another occasion he attended a gathering of Fakhr al-Rāzī (3) in Khurāsān while the latter was on the pulpit exhorting the people. A dove, pursued by a bird of prey, flew in and flung itself upon Fakhr al-Rāzī as though seeking sanctuary; thereupon Ibn ʿUnayn improvised (5):
[full metre]
A dove came to the Solomon of the age (6)
while death flashed from the wings of the swooping hawk.
A noble raptor, hunger had so bent him (7)
that even his shadow ran beside him with a pounding heart (8).
Who informed (9) the ring-dove that your abode is sacred,
that you are a refuge for those in fear?
Shaykh Shihāb al-Dīn al-Suhrawardī (10), author of “ʿAwārif al-Maʿārif,” ʿUmar b. Muḥammad b. ʿAbd Allāh b. Muḥammad b. ʿAmmūyah (11)—whose personal name was ʿAbd Allāh al-Bakrī al-Baghdādī, Shihāb al-Dīn Abū Ḥafṣ al-Suhrawardī—was the shaykh of the Sufis in Baghdad.
He ranked among the great saints and leading figures of the Muslims, and he was repeatedly dispatched as envoy between caliphs and kings.