In the winter of the year A.H. 508 (=A.D. 1114-1115) the King sent a messenger to Merv to the Prime Minister Saḍru'd-Dín Muḥammad b. al-Mudhaffar (on whom be God's Mercy) bidding him tell Khwája Imám 'Umar to select a favourable time for him to go hunting, such that therein should be no snowy or rainy days. For Khwája Imám 'Umar was in the Minister's company, and used to lodge at his house.

So the Minister sent a messenger to summon him, and told him what had happened. The Khwája went and looked into the matter for two days, and made a careful choice; and he himself went and superintended the mounting of the King at the auspicious moment. When the King was mounted and had gone but a short distance,*

the sky became overcast with clouds, a wind arose, and snow and mist supervened. All present fell to laughing, and the King desired to turn back; but Khwája Imám ['Umar] said: “Have no anxiety, for this very hour the clouds will clear away, and during these five days there will be not a drop of moisture.” So the King rode on, and the clouds opened, and during those five days there was no moisture, and no one saw a cloud.

But prognostication by the stars, though a recognized art, is not to be relied on, and whatever the astrologer predicts he must leave to Fate.