1. A mentor and his two sons adorned with virtues,
Attained the highest of high ranks.

2. Tails of glory - though you know them not -
In knowledge, they are leaders of mankind.

3. From Ali came a garden, pouring its abundance,
Clouds of merit, not mere clouds of rain.

4. Have you not seen - the ladle overflowed and poured forth,
Quenching more than a bowl of wine.

5. With lines of verse it rendered speechless every poet,
And prose of such eloquence as muted every orator.

6. With strange meanings it exhausted every scholar,
And lines of script that shook every scribe.

7. A spring with roses in bloom for dawns,
And a highland for pilgrims come to plead.

8. With magic it drew smiles from frowning brows,
Pride for it in the Highest - above the arch of eyebrows.

9. Had it frowned - no faces would beam,
Nor cover its forbearance with a drinker's veil.

10. My grandfather Ibn Munqidh said virtues are Ali's,
He whose star shines with virtues.

11. My home, like his, established in poetry
With no outsider - a wonder it is!

12. Munqidh built glory, succeeded by Muqallad,
And Ali exemplified its path in creeds.

13. Murshid spared no effort emulating them,
And the sons of that full moon - the stars glow.

14. To them flees every fearful soul,
And in them places its hopes every desirer.

15. About them speaks every praiser,
And from them turns away every detractor.

16. Their fire of war extinguishes the flames of battle,
And their hearth's fire stokes the fire of the victors.

17. Sweet are their orchards and their tales,
Sweeter than tales are their words.

18. Their virtues are strange, and greater is their pride
In what they exclusively attained, not mere strange virtues.

19. Their gains are praise - they sought not
Base worldly gains, the gains of shepherds.

20. Goods of the world either remain with their goods,
Or what joy is there in the goods of goods?

21. Ali saw me playing with poems,
So he brought forth more, though not a player.

22. I confessed his superiority, challenged by his words -
But how can the deserving compare with towering tribulations?