the state or from anyone else, nor was any allowance or endowment assigned to his zawiyah, though this was offered to him more than once and he always refused. People visited him regularly; he possessed extensive learning and many virtues, had sound understanding and complete insight, and his creed and inner state were both upright. He loved hadith and the reports of the early generations, recited the Quran abundantly, and was constantly gathered in reliance upon Allah—exalted is He—(1). He composed a small treatise recounting the exploits of his grandfather (2). May Allah have mercy on him, refresh his resting-place with copious mercy, and grant him peace.
The righteous shaykh, accomplished man of letters, and eminent poet: Taqī al-Dīn Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh ibn Shaykh Aḥmad ibn Tammām ibn Ḥassān al-Tullī, later al-Ṣāliḥī the Ḥanbalī (3), the brother of Shaykh Muḥammad ibn Tammām. He was born in 635 AH, heard hadith, kept company with scholars, and was handsome in appearance and character—amiable, delightful to live or sit with, and much given to pleasant banter. He resided for a time in the Ḥijāz, met Ibn Sabʿīn (5) and Taqī al-Ḥawrānī, studied grammar with Ibn Mālik (6) and his son Badr al-Dīn, and remained in their company for a period. Shihāb Maḥmūd accompanied him for fifty years and praised him for his asceticism and indifference to worldly things. He died on the night of Saturday, the third of Rabīʿ al-Ākhir, and was buried at the foot of the hill.
Shaykh ʿAlam al-Dīn al-Barzalī, in his biographical notice, cites a selection of his poetry, including the following:
O dwellers of the way-stations lodged within my heart—
for you, in one of its throbbing chambers (7) is repose.
Forever I rehearse my tale about you;
it grows sweet, though the tale itself (8) is filled with longing.
I string it as rubies (9) made of my tears,
then eyes and eyelids scatter those gems.
Fresh meanings I devise in your love,
and for your sake every rhyme becomes easy.
I question the weeper about you in secret—
for the secret of my love is a secret (11) well-kept.