75 – Maysarah ibn Ḥassān narrated to me, from Qabīṣah ibn ʿUmar al-Muhallabī, who said: “ʿUmar ibn Ḥafṣ Hazārmard wrote to Abū Jaʿfar al-Manṣūr informing him that, in the caravanserai of al-Mawlatān on the frontier adjoining enemy territory, he had come upon a written note that said: ‘So-and-so son of Muḥammad,’—meaning ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ḥasan ibn Ḥasan. When I had reached this part of the letter, having already swallowed blood, I recited these lines:

Perhaps a draught will yet run clear and quench a parched throat
Whose longing the turbid fountain kept unsatisfied.
Perhaps the south-wind’s early showers will suffice,
And the downtrodden, oppressed one will at last find help.
Perhaps the Gentle Mender of shattered bones
Will soothe the broken limb and set it right.
Perhaps—so do not despair of Allah—for with Allah
What seems immense and mighty is but easy.”