416 – ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥasan narrated to me; he said: Abū al-Yamān related to us; he said: Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAyyāsh, from Saʿīd ibn ʿAbd Allāh, reported that al-Ḥajjāj ibn Yūsuf asked Khālid ibn Yazīd about the life of this world. He replied, “It is an inheritance.” He asked, “And the days?” He answered, “They are shifting dominions.” He asked, “And time?” He said, “It comes in successive layers, and death meets one on every road. Let the powerful beware of humiliation and the wealthy of poverty, for how many a powerful man has been humbled, and how many a wealthy man has been reduced to need.”