Taj al-maʾathir 1.4

1.4

They were such words that if the world were to hear them, On account of their beauty the people would incline to become ears. Your words are right and your meaning correct, Your opinion is the soul and your greatness the body. Your words are the product of the bough of rhetoric, And your clemency is the fruit of the seed of eloquence. In no respect did the words of threats, or promises become established in the heart of that man of dark understanding, nor did advantages or menaces addressed to the heart (and indeed he who menaces offers the alternative of advantages) have place in the hearing of that obstinate, for from his large army and grandeur the desire of something like the conquest of the world had raised a phantom in his imagination; and he remained neglectful of the subtle principle that armies do not profit when the time has passed, and he had placed on the shelf of forgetfulness the good maxim that "when fate comes the field of opportunity is narrowed" and had not read the divine order that "it is a duty imposed on me to give aid to the faithful;" and in the sight of his idolatry the commands of the law were the dreams of oppression, and the light of instruction showed the darkness of his perdition, and since in the sublime understanding of the sovereign which derived aid and support from the world of holiness, and the light of his wisdom exceeds and surmounts that splendour of the sun and moon.