He was a profound sage, and was regarded as a leader in religious matters both by Ṣūfīs and by orthodox Muslims.* He was a cheerful and pleasant companion. Although he was for a time, as is well known, the pupil of Shaikh ‘Abdu-'llāh Makhdū-mu-'l-Mulk, I certainly found him to be far superior to Makhdū-mu-'l-Mulk. So broad-minded was he in religious matters that he was commonly suspected of being a heretic. But the fact is that he was so credulous that he would implicitly trust any person, even a manifest heretic, who was inclined to asceticism, and would stand before him with joined hands, and regard any­thing he might say as an authoritative utterance.

They say that a heretic who pretended to be mysteriously attracted to God one day came upon the Qāẓī, and that the Qāẓī after his custom, stood before him with his hands joined in ⁸⁵ reverence. The heretic, deluded wretch, said, “Khiẓr* is always with me.” The Qāẓī fell at his feet saying, “Show him to me.” The heretic replied, “I am at present in great anxiety over the marriage of my daughter, an affair which will cost me seven hundred tankas; when my anxiety is removed I will effect a meeting between you and Khiẓr.” The Qāẓī at once gave him seven hundred tankas. Two days later the man came to him and said, “Come that I may show you Khiẓr,” and took him away with him to the river. Now the heretic was a very tall man, while the Qāẓī was low of stature. The heretic walked into the river until the water reached his neck, and then stood still, and said to the Qāẓī, “Come to me, for Khiẓr is here.” The Qāẓī replied, “I cannot swim; how can I come to you?” The heretic replied, “Well, I have shown you the place where Khiẓr is, if you cannot come to it it is no fault of mine.” Many other stories, even more laughable than this, are told of the Qāẓī, and to detail them would be to show the weakness of his intellect. His extreme simplicity can be estimated from the example cited.

When the Emperor bestowed* on the chief men of Lāhōr appointments in various parts of the Empire, and sent each one of them to fill some post in one city or another, Ṣadru-'d-dīn was appointed to be Qāẓī of the seaport town of Bahrōc, in the prov­ince of Gujarāt, and was despatched thither in that capacity. There he died, leaving behind him a son possessed of ability, named Shaikh Muḥammad, who now holds in that city the appointment held by his late father.