448 – Ibrāhīm ibn ʿAbd al-Malik narrated to me, from a shaykh ⦗193⦘ of Quraysh, who said: One of the sages used to say, “When night and day are a man’s two mounts, they will carry him onward even if he himself does not set out.”

Mahmūd ibn al-Ḥasan then recited to me his verses:

O elderly man who still beguiles his soul, though gray hairs now abound,
Know that while you sleep upon your bed, you are already on the outbound.
Night keeps folding up, untiring, and day escorts you from place to place;
They alternate to deliver death—never negligent, while you remain in heedless grace.