He was known for his varied attainments and numerous accom­plishments. He had performed the pilgimage to the two holy places, Makkah and Madīnah, and afterwards came to India. In Arabia he had studied some of the books of traditions such as the Mishkāt,* and the Shamā'ilu-n-Nabī* (may God bless and preserve the prophet!) under Mīr Murtaẓā-yi-Sharīfī* and others. Being overcome by the weakness of old age he set out for his beloved native land, his original home, and while halting at Peshāwar on his way thither he heard the cry, “Return to Me!” from the lips of the Angel of Death, and in A.H. 973 (A.D. 1565-66) he withdrew to the Presence of the Merciful God.

The following verses are some of the relies of his copious ima­gination.

193 “Whether in the idol-temple or in the Ka‘bah I have looked
to none but Thee,
Wherever I have been I have never been forgetful of
Thee.”

“It is not in our age alone that the sky (fate) has been
pitiless,
Since its revolutions first began it has been both pitiless
and faithless.”

“Though Bīkasī should hear the reproaches of his enemies
a hundred times,
It were fitting that he should not allow them to vex or
disturb him,
For the following perfect couplet is well known throughout
the world:
And why, indeed, should not such a couplet have world-
wide fame?

‘Though the worthless stone crush the golden vase
The worth of the stone is not increased nor is that of the
gold diminished.’”

Quatrain.

“Oh heart, give not the rein to thine anguish and grief!
Forgo not one moment of true delight for all the dominion
of Jamshīd;
Should a loved one fall to thy lot, see well
That thou exchange not the dust of her footsteps for all
that both worlds can give.”

Maulānā Bīkasī writes that one day the late emperor Humā-yūn wrote in his own graceful handwriting over the arch of the porch of his palace in the royal residence of Dihlī the following couplet by Shaikh Āẕarī:—

“I have heard that on this gilded dome
Is written ‘At last the actions of all become praiseworthy.’”

The emperor was fated shortly afterwards to leave this narrow dwelling of deception for the sweet abode of bliss,* and owing ¹⁹⁴ to the exigencies of the time that very palace was utilized as his tomb, and since this action of that enlightened king was attributed to miraculous prevision the chronogram for that event, contained in the following verses, was widely quoted at the time:—

“When the Emperor Humāyūn shortly before he died
Wrote on the door of the dwelling in which he lived,
‘It is written that at the last the actions of all become praise-
worthy,’
He referred prophetically to his own righteous end;
And when that dwelling by the decree of fate became his
tomb
It became the point towards which all turn in prayer, and
the Ka‘bah of their desires.

For this reason I give the following chronogram for his
death,
‘The foundation of the dwelling* of the Sulān whose end
was praiseworthy.’”