Muntakhab al-tawarikh 22.2.4

22.2.4

And Maliku-l-Kalam Fakhru-l-Mulk ‘Amid Tuhki mentions him as a master: and since the speech of the modern (poets) after the appearance of the cavalcade of the Prince of poets has become like the stars at the time of the raising of the banner of the glorious sun, and like the seven poems at the time of the descent of the inspired revelation upon the best of men, and the Lord of the world on him be peace, remains concealed as by a curtain — men speak and write less concerning them, nay more they do not even possess them — accordingly, in harmony with the saying, The first comer has the best of it, I have thought it incumbent upon me to include a few odes from that eminent author as a benediction and blessing, in this composition of mine, and to leave a memorial for his friends, and to establish my own connection with the master, and to display upon the dais of evidence the excellencies of that doughty knight of the arena of eloquence, and more especially to fulfil the demands of fellow-citizenship. The master poet Shihāb Muhammad [Badaoni] then says as follows: — I am Alif in the table of existence and of no value as a sign. My existence depends upon the duration of the existence of others, my own existence is transitory. I stand at the end of the row in the hope of obtaining a better position, having rested from all movement with the attributes of insignificance. I have not the attributes of Alif for Alif has no crookedness.