In accordance with tradition, alluding to the saying of Mohammed that he who bathes before Friday prayers will have his sins remitted.

Seeking in the sap of my youth help against the glamours of the mirage, i.e., finding in the freshness and vigour of youth a safeguard against the allurements of sensual pleasure, which are deceptive as the sarâb, or resemblance of water in the desert. With regard to this latter word, that which I translate with “sap” is in the original mâ’, water, applied to the face in the sense of brightness and beauty, to youth in the sense of sprightliness and energy.

When I was entitled to speak of my home, lit., I was master of the expression ‘indî, which in Arabic is equivalent to, I have or possess. It differs from the synonyms ladaiya or ma‘î, “I have with me,” by meaning both “I have with me” and “at home,” which latter signification justifies the above rendering.

And offer the best of cattle, for “a fattened camel,” in allusion to a tradition handed down by Ibn Omar, according to which Mohammed said: He who has taken on a Friday the bath of purification is as though he had offered a fattened camel (badanah).

People ceased not to enter in troops into the faith of Allah, allusion to Koran, cx. 2, “And thou seest men entering the religion of Allah by troops.” The following expression, “singly and in pairs,” also occurs in the sacred book, xxxiv. 45, where, however, instead of azwâjan (in pairs), the expression mas̤ná, “two by two,” is used.

And the time had come when a person is equal to his shadow, indicating the time shortly after noon, when the prayer of z̤uhr is to be per­formed, in accordance with the tradition: “Say the prayer of z̤uhr, when thy shadow is like thyself.”

In the wake of his acolytes (khalfa ‘uṣbati-hi).—The word uṣbah, troop, is explained by Sherîshi “the company of the muaẕẕins.”

When he gave blessing by waving his right hand, instead of uttering the words salâmun ‘alaikum, a practice observed by preachers, following the doctrine of Ash-Shâfi‘î, to which Ḥarîri himself adhered.

A guide to the right road for the black hued and the red, i.e., for the Arabs and the nations unable to speak Arabic, and therefore called ‘Ajam, dumb, as the Persians, Greeks, Europeans in general. They are respectively named black and red, on account of their com­plexion, or the colour of their hair.

Of the angel and the frightfulness of his questioning, allusion to the angels Munkar and Nakîr, said to visit the dead in their graves and to interrogate them as to their belief in the Prophet and his religion.

How many roadmarks has it effaced, etc., lit., how often has it effaced a roadmark, but the renderings given seem more in accord­ance with the English idiom.

On destroying the songster and the listener to the song, in Arabic al-musmi‘ wa ’s-sâmi‘, the one who makes listen to and delights by his melodies (mut̤rib), and the listener delighted thereby (t̤arib).

It bestows no riches but to show aversion and to reverse your hopes, in Arabic lâ mawwala illâ mâla wa âkasa ’al-âmâla, the verb mâla having with the preposition ilá the meaning “he inclined towards, was favourable,” with the preposition ‘alá, he was biassed against and proved obnoxious. This passage is full of assonances and alliterations, for the sake of which I would translate in the following sentences kalama ’l-auṣâla, to cut the limbs, somewhat freely by “to harm,” and la‘uma, to stint, by “to harass.”

And Ṣirât̤ your path.—The word Ṣirât̤, which in common parlance means road, is in the Koran generally accompanied by the adjec­tive mustaqîm, the straight or right road, that is, the teaching of Mohammed or Islâm. In Sûra xxxvii. 23, however, the ex­pression occurs: “guide them to the road of hell” (ilá ṣirât̤i ’l-jaḥîmi), and this has probably given rise to the signification in which the word is used in the traditions and theological writings as the bridge across the infernal fire, which is described as finer than a hair and sharper than a sword. The righteous will pass over it with the swiftness of the lightning, but the wicked will soon miss their footing and will fall into the fire of hell.

And the plain your goal, or resorting place, in Arabic wa’s-sâhiratu mauridukum, taken from Koran, lxxix. 14, where as-sâhirah is explained as the renewed expanse of the earth, on which the gathering of mankind on the day of judgment takes place, or as the surface of the earth, to which they are called by the blast of resurrection from their graves beneath it. This name, which means “the wakeful,” is given to the earth, because it watches over vegetation day and night, and it is also one of the names of hell, because its inhabitants never close their eyes in sleep.

Are not the terrors of doomsday lying in ambush for you?—At̤-t̤âmmah means originally an overwhelming calamity, from t̤amma-’lmâ’, the water has overflowed, and is, generally with the adjective al-kubrá, “the great,” applied to resurrection, as in verse 34 of the Sura just quoted. Another Koranic expression is al-ḥut̤amah, the crushing, applied to hell in Sura civ. 4, 5, where it is said that the back­biter shall be flung into it. In the text it is called “the firmly locked,” because no escape from it is possible.

By the fulfilment of fate or befalling of fatality, i.e., the inevitableness of death. De Sacy, in his commentary, quotes to this passage the following lines of Mutenebbi:

“There is no help for man of that couch where once placed he never tosses from side to side;

Thereon he forgets, what erewhile has enraptured him, and the bitterness that death has made him to taste.

We are the sons of the dead, why then loathe the draught, that needs must be drained?

We stint to Time our souls, though they be his due,

For these souls are air of his air, and these bodies are dust of his dust;

If the lover bethought himself of what the end will be of the beauty that entrances him, it would not entrance him.

Yet when we see the bursting forth of the rising sun, our minds doubt not of his setting.

The shepherd in his ignorance dies, as surely as Galen with his leechcraft.

Nay, at times he will out-live him, and surpass him in the safeness of his flock.”

A bride without a spot, implying that the address was composed of words devoid of dotted letters, as in the feminine termination the diacritical points are not considered to be inherent in the letter, but merely an accidental addition, introduced for the sake of euphony in the case of a vowel following.

And (the moment) for dispersing on the earth had come, allusion to Koran, lxii. 10: “And when the prayer is ended disperse yourselves abroad and go in quest of the bounties of God, and often remember God.”

In the rank of Al Fuẓail, a celebrated devotee and ascetic in the days of Harûn ar Reshîd, who according to some authorities was born at Samarcand, the scene of the present Assembly, and whose life is to be found in Ibn Khallikân, i. 580.