His name is Sharīf, and he is the son of Khẉāja ‘Abdu-ṣ-Ṣamad the painter. He is a youth lately come to man's estate, and he is unrivalled in beauty of penmanship and in painting. It is well known that his father wrote in full, and in a good and legible hand, on one side of a poppy seed, the Sūratu-l-lkhlāṣ,* and on the other side of it the argument of the chapter; and they say that his son, Sharīf, bored in one poppy seed eight small holes, and passed wires through them, and that he drew, on a grain of rice, a picture of an armed horseman, preceded by an outrider, and bearing all the things proper to a horseman such as a sword, a shield, a polo-stick, et cetera.

Sharīf has a pleasant nature. He has composed a dīvān and the following verses were selected by him from his works and given to me (for insertion in this work).

“They who wander by night in the grief of longing after thee
cause me to weep,
For they travel over the road by the rays of that light of
Thine.
³¹¹ Clemency is Thine, but I am all sin.
When Thou pardonest such a one as me all will sin.”

“I sift the sparks of my lamentations in the sieve of respect
Lest, perchance, their harsh sound should strike thy ear.”

“By the blessing of love I am at perfect peace with both
worlds,
Do thou become my enemy and see with what friendliness
I shall treat thee.”

“The spacious field of my breast is so full of love
That, in spite of my earnest desire, there is no room for
more.”

“Prosperity is no assistance in our path
We have recognized the Friend in another form.”

A Manavī.

“I have a grief for which may all joys be sacrificed;
May God guard my grief from the evil eye.
When my heart admitted the fire which burnt within me
Even resignation became a stranger to it.”

“If she has taken my heart O God, carry to her nostrils
The odour of separation, which was mingled with my
heart's blood.”

“Why should I sing of my genius or boast of my intellect?
The fact that I am generous* disproves my boast.”

“O intellect, how long empty-handed in the market of love
Wilt thou ask the price of the goods and blush for what
thou hast to offer in exchange?”

A quatrain. ³¹²

“I have a love which is my religion and my faith.
I have a pain which is chief over all my possessions.
Should love be parted from me it will die
Saying, ‘Sharīf-i-Fārisī is my soul.’”

“To have in the breast beauty of the heart is such a wonder
That it is pointed out like the new moon, when it can only
just be seen.”

“The price of gratitude, that unsaleable commodity, has risen
Because no caravan arrives from the land of grief.”

“Cast not away the heart which thou hast stolen,
Carry a treasure, although it may seem heavy.”

“O zephyr, bear this message to love, ‘Take courage, for we
are gone,

No more will the dust of thy street be turned into mire by
tears’.”

“I am silent from jealousy, not from pride of love,
For no speech, save of thee, passes on my tongue.”