He is Saif-ul-Mulūk the physician.* One day when he came to treat a sick man Mīr Sayyid Muḥammad the cloth-weaver, who has the poetical name of Fikrī,* and is well known under the nickname of Mīr Rubā‘ī, was employed with the patient. The Mīr said of Shujā‘ī,

“A sharp sword* is his worship, Maulavī Saif-ul-Mulūk,
Who has introduced a new fashion in the practice of medi-
cine.
²⁵⁴ Yesterday Death said, when he had come to take the life of
a sick man,
‘Everywhere I go he has been called in first.’”

The Maulānā (Saif-ul-Mulūk) composed the following ‘increased’ quatrain* on the incontinence and gluttony of the Mīr (Sayyid Muḥammad),

“O Mīr, how can five gallons* of thick broth be contained—
in one debilitated stomach?
Si autem contineantur, quomodo continebit se penis tuus—ab
intromissione primâ?*

A tablet which will not contain a quatrain—written in the
smallest writing*
Will surely not contain a long ode—written in large text.”*

The following verses are the production of the Maulānā's almost magical genius:—

“Distracted with love, the hair of thy head is dishevelled,
May I become a sacrifice for thy head, for thou hast traffic
with lovers.”

“A hair has fallen from my love's locks across her cheek,
Or is it perchance the thread of my soul lying across the
fire?”

“Better that I should be buried in the earth than that, for
the sake of base desires,
I should walk the earth to seek favours from worldlings.”