Muntakhab al-tawarikh 148: XXIV. SHAIKH NAJIB-UD-DIN.

148

He was a native of Hindaun and had the reputation of being skilled in alchemy. It is said that the Shaikh was constantly in attendance on the emperor Humayun who has obtained forgiveness of his sins both in court and in camp, and that when the emperor arrived at Agra after being defeated at Jausa the Shaikh said, “Something will be required for the maintenance of a fresh army,” and accordingly collected all the copper pots, dishes, and other vessels which could be found and, in the late emperor’s presence, converted them into pure gold. This matter was noised abroad, but when I inquired into the truth of it from his sons, with whom I am connected by marriage, they told me that a darvish of great attainments had given their father a basket full of the ingredients necessary for the transmutation of the baser metals, and that to whatever copper this was applied the alchemist's object was attained, but that after their father had once mixed these ingredients with the copper he had no further power of manufacturing gold, as he was unacquainted with the science of alchemy, — but God knows the truth!
I saw the Shaikh in Agra in the days when Bairam Khan was in power in the house of Sayyid Shah Mir, the nephew of Mir Sayyid Rafi'u-'d-din the traditionist. He was an old man of enlightened appearance and of a good disposition. He died in those days, and is buried in Hindaun.