Among* the wonderful events and unusual traits of H.M. Shāh­inshāh which came forth from the ambush of secrecy and displayed their splendours in the theatre of manifestation, there was this that when H.M. Jahānbānī Jinnat Āshīyānī had come to Delhi after the victory over Sikandar, he (Akbar) there practised drawing in accordance with a sublime suggestion (of Humāyūn?). The skilful artists such as Mīr Saiyid 'Alī* and Khwāja 'Abdul-Ṣamad Shīrīn­qalm, who were among the matchless ones of this art, were in his service and were instructing him. One day this cyclopædia of Divine things was in the library of H.M. Jahanbānī and in order to sharpen his mind was employing himself in drawing. He drew with inspired pencil the figure of a man with all his limbs separated. One of the courtiers saw that strange picture and asked the meaning of it. H.M. with mystery-explaining tongue said that it represented Hemū. At that time the name and note of Hemū were unknown, and so the listeners did not comprehend the matter and refrained from further enquiry. On the day when Bairām Khān made his request and tried to induce H.M. to slay Hemū with his own holy hand, H.M. replied that he had dispatched that haughty one on a former day and had dismembered him, and then he referred to the incident of the picture. Good God! How and when in that year had the news of this dominion-augmenting occurrence been conveyed by the tongue of act and the lip of speech? Certainly, to-day, to-morrow, yesterday, the present and the absent may be revealed to ordinary compounds* of human nature. But with nurslings of Divine light, disciples of the Truth and teachers of Reason, whose pure essences are manifestations of the Divine radiance, and are the rising of Reality's sun, the future and the past attend upon the present and the absent is like the present fully visible. What matters absence to him who knows the presence of God? Away, away! there can be nothing invisible there!

This traveller on devotion's highway, Abūl Faẓl to wit, the writer of this preamble of excellencies, one day asked H.M. the circum­stances of this miracle. He enunciated in reply: “An invisible Inspirer had placed an intimation of it on our tongue; he best knows the secret thereof.” The effulgence of Truth's luminary, and its retire­ment behind a veil are similarly conditioned phenomena. Mighty is the capacity of a sublime nature which when placed amidst so many cellars full of varied senses-robbing wines, a mere sip of which will intoxicate heroes of the Path, viz., 1st. The wine of early youth. 2nd. The wine of temporal dominion. 3rd. The wine of spiritual supremacy. 4th. The wine of outward beauty. 5th. The wine of hidden favour; can retain its high sense and look not to itself, but to God! The wishes of such a soul are made its lovers, and Fortune is constituted the attendant on the threshold of its hopes. I, who am, night and day, a devotee of this gate of Fortune, do not call to remembrance that either when he has cast a gleam of favour upon any­one, or in familiar conversation, he has ever uttered a syllable which savoured* of arrogance, or that in his down-sitting or uprising, in his speech or in his audition in the company of his grandees,* he has exhibited any change of demeanour. Far-seeing sages well know how impossible it is to gauge the capacity of one who uses so many man-o'erthrowing wines, and yet daily increases in wisdom. But he who is linked to fortune and is wakeful-hearted, knows this much that the Divine Providence must be the Watchman over him, and that such great victories (over passions) come easily to him, and that such great gifts and noble deeds and wondrous works rarely appear in this world. (rūzgārān).

One great marvel was that at the time when the expedition started from Jālandhar for the conquest of India, and the extirpation of Hemū, an order was given one day to the master of the ordnance to prepare fireworks as a treat to the soldiers, and that among other things they should make an image of Hemū, fill it with gunpowder, and set it on fire. The workmen quickly prepared a pyrotechnic dis­play (gulzār-ī-ātish, lit., a rosegarden of fire), and they brought the image of Hemū there and set it on fire. In appearance it was simply keen amusement, in reality it was extinguishing a malevolent life. Certes, it is fitting that one who does such great deeds under the guise of sport and fun should, men being what they are, retire behind a veil and not show his spiritual beauty and that in his work he should appear as if unconcerned.

Assuredly and incontestably there was no such masterpiece on the occasions when former great-hearted, nobly-born ones formed the design of conquering India and did great deeds. This will be evident on a little consideration to those who know ancient history. For on none of those former occasions was there a ruler of India, possessed of such courage, enterprize, and plan (as Hemū). On the contrary they were backward in the management of their own dominions. It was otherwise with this virile spirit, he was ever meditating the conquest of distant climes and kept hidden in his heart the designs of great expeditions. And in truth fortune had favoured Hemū in a way which the rulers of India had not attained to in those former days, viz., in the multitude of tried soldiers; the number of able officers, the plenitude of artillery, which had nothing like it except in Turkey, and the number of powerful elephants, any one of which was enough to throw an army into confusion. Maulānā Sharafu-d-dīn 'Alī Yazdī, in his account in the afarnāma of the fights of H.M. Ṣaḥib Qirānī (Timur) which took place in India, speaks of the warriors of India and of the greatness of its rulers, and boasts* that 120 war-elephants came into the possession of the imperial servants in that great war. To those that know history and are of sound brain, the condition of the ruler of that time as compared with Hemū is clear. On that latter instructive occasion, of which a small account has been given, 1,500 elephants were captured. The rest of the equipments may be conjectured from this. But how shall the amount of the ruler's* own treasures, etc., be counted? The plain of victory was the same for­tunate spot as that where H.M. Getī Sītānī Firdūs Makānī contended with Sulān Ibrāhīm and raised the victorious standards, as has already been briefly related in its proper place.

On the same exultant day which showed by God's help so great a victory, Sikandar Khān Uzbeg was sent with a body of troops to pursue the fugitives and to protect the city of Delhi from the rabble. He acted with rapidity and delivered some of the malignant and use­less from the prison of existence, and put the distracted inhabitants of the country in order. Much plunder fell into his hands. Next day the army of fortune marched out at an hour, which the astrologers had chosen, and cast the light of their arrival on the holy ter­ritory of Delhi. The noble, the distinguished in every science, and the skilful in every craft, came out in crowds to welcome the army and uttered shouts of blessing. Majnūn Khān Qāqshāl represented to H.M. the excellent loyalty of Rajah Bihārī Mal which he had shown at the siege (of Narnaul). A gracious order was issued for his attendance and the Rajah obeyed the command and was rewarded, by kissing the ground of obedience. On one day when robes of honour had been presented to the Rajah and to his sons and other relatives, and they had been brought to the Court to receive their dismissal, H.M. was mounted on a mast elephant which in its intoxication was rushing in every direction. People were all going to one side. Once it ran towards the Rajputs, but as they held fast to their loyalty they remained standing. This steadiness pleased the lofty glance of H.M. the Shāhinshāh, and he made inquiries about the Rajah and said with his mystery-interpreting tongue, “We'll rear you.”* This came to pass as will be described hereafter.

Thanks be to God that the Hindustanis, or rather all mankind obtained a head. Volumes are not sufficient to contain his greatness. By the grace of his justice the ever-vernal garden of India received special verdure and the truth-worshipping servants of God received a powerful support. In thanksgiving for this great boon, grand feasts were organised, and treasures of gifts were poured into the lap of the world. The Shāhinshāh's favour exalted by a variety of kindnesses a number of men who had trod valiantly the forecourt of devotion. High and low, small and great, were made fortunate by large rewards. Among them, 'Alī Qulī Khān Shaibānī was exalted by the title of Khān Zamān, and the Sarkār of Sambhal and other parganās of the Dūāb were assigned to him as jāgīr, and he obtained leave in order that he might go and manage those territories.