When they dash against the towering mountains, the peaks themselves quake,
while what was craggy ground lies smooth beneath their steeds (1).

Were their chargers to reach the waters of the Euphrates (2),
people would say, “Once, long ago, a river flowed here.”

They drew around it a cordon so tight that it looked like a ring
on a little finger (3), or a girdle clasped about a slender waist.

From the oceans of their hands they unfurled over it a cloud of doom,
and not a single drop of its rain was free of death.

The catapults arrayed around it were like thunders of wrath,
whose downpour was fire and stone (4).

All night its rocks performed the prayer of war:
most of them in even pairs, the largest in odd.

Tunnels were driven round about it in reckless excess (5);
no interdiction checked the havoc they wrought.

Thus the fortress stood like a youth who hides his passion,
fearing his rivals, while an ember blazes in his heart.

Flames flared within until the walls were torn apart;
the secret was betrayed and the veil fell away.

They clung to the hem of your clemency, yet you denied their plea (6),
for their petition had been tainted with guile.

The Mongols did not resent your being occupied with it
as they fled; indeed, it gladdened them.

But you stitched it shut with the sword, subduing it by force (7)—
and so have all your former conquests been, each one sheer coercion.

By Allah’s praise it now stands a fortified frontier town,
outlasting night and foe alike, its ramparts smiling wide.

O noblest of kings, you have gained a campaign
whose prizes are victory, renown, and reward.

May you be congratulated before the Chosen Prophet that his religion
has enjoyed, through the blessing of your reign, unbroken aid.

Glad tidings (8): you have pleased both the Messiah and Ahmad,
though al-Ya‘fūr (9) and unbelief may rage at it.

Journey wherever you choose, for the whole earth obeys you (10),
and every province is, for you, another Egypt.

Live on and endure, that guidance may thrive through you,
and that this age may outshine bygone ages thanks to you.

I have omitted many other verses.