XIV. ABTARI OF BADAKHSHĀN.

His assumed name accords well with his nature.* He has committed to memory, parrot-like, some phrases from the Futūḥāt and the Fuṣūṣu-l-Ḥikam,* and has striven hard, in a polemical treatise, to establish the good faith of Pharaoh,* for which reason he has been nicknamed “Pharaoh's Advocate.” The following is the opening couplet of a qaṣīdah by him:—

“Thou saidest, ‘Shall I deal with my lovers faithfully or
cruelly?’
O, impudent one, know that we choose the former!”