Said the Shaykh to him: “Thou hast done well, may thy mouth never be harmed, nor he be benefited who speaks thee harshly, for, by Allah, thou art, despite thy tender youth, a safer keeper than the earth, and more of a collector than the day of mustering (resurrection). Now I have made thee and thy comrades drink from my pure draught, and have straightened you as spear-shafts are straightened, so think of me, and I will think of you, and give me thanks, and be not ungrateful.” Said Al Ḥârith, son of Hammâm: Then I wondered at what he had displayed of ingenuity blended with stolid­ness, and what he had shown of sagacity mingled with foolishness, and my glance ceased not to look up and down at him, and to scan and scrutinize him, but I was like one who tries to see in the dark, or who wanders in a trackless desert. So when he found my awakening tardy and my bewilderment evident, he blinked at me and smiled, saying: “There remains none who reads features.” Then I pondered as to the purport of his speech, when lo, I found him to be Abû Zayd by dint of his smile. Thereupon I began to blame him for making his home in a den of fools and choosing the trade of a clown. Then it was as if his face had been strewn with ashes, or imbued with blackness, save that he was not slow to indite:

“If Ḥims I have chosen, and trade as buffoon, it was to be blessed with the portion of fool-borns,

For our age selects but the fool for its favours, and houses its wealth in the pools of the hollows,

While brothers of wisdom obtain from their age not more than the donkey tied up in the courtyard.”

Then he said: “But teaching is the most honourable of crafts, and the most profitable of merchandizes, the most successful of intercessions, and the most excellent of eminences, and its possessor is lord of a rule obeyed, and of awe widespread, and of a flock [subjects] sub­missive to his sway, he guards with the guardianship of a prince, and fixes allowances as a Wazîr fixes them, and ordains with the authority of the powerful, and resembles the owner of a great kingdom, save that in a short while he reaches his dotage, and becomes noted for far-famed foolishness, and shifts about with small wits in his dealings, and none can enlighten thee better [in this matter] than one who speaks from experience.” Said I to him: “By Allah, thou art the son of the days and the pattern of patterns, and the wizard who beguiles understandings, who has access to every branch-path of speech.” Thereupon I ceased not to attend at his assembly, and to plunge into the current of his river, until the bright days passed away and grey events took their stead, when I separated from him with tears in my eyne.