1. Ask the caravan where it departed from
And why its litters were raised above the camels

2. And why it left behind longing hearts
Inflamed by passion, tossed by its flames

3. Excited by the guide, delighted by the journey
When its yearning and sighing wore it out

4. The scent of youth reminds it of the days of youth
Did the fragrance of perfume emanate from its wrappings?

5. Though I may control its lead rope
Its love and affection lead my heart astray

6. When it turns gently or acts coyly
Its coquetry is hoped for and its blame feared

7. O my friend, which situation gives comfort?
Its intention or the difficulty of meeting it

8. If eyes do not win a glance from it
Its nearness and distance are equal to me

9. Of what use is the nearness of its abode
If its veil remains lowered over it

10. I ready my hopes for nearing it
Can absence be without hoped-for return?

11. I fear the vicissitudes of fate in closeness
Can there be a coming without feared departure?

12. O my two boon companions, youthful vigor
Is the nobility of souls that passion sweetly consumed

13. And pass by the vestiges of past encampments
For tomorrow their roses will be sweet torment

14. And say to her whom the wrapping sheets protect
And whose pure ancestry the generous tribes claim

15. And whose people the dew of generosity showed
And the attainment of glory is their nature and gain

16. A party was mentioned that was raised in service of Joseph
Its eminence grew and its dignity exalted

17. I told them that to me those bygone days
In their beginning and end are equal

18. And that I keep faith with affection even if
The abode turns away or its mounts head off

19. I call to the shy gazelles who do not answer
Though the heart’s wound refuses any remedy but their response

20. My thoughts seek to visit one who has refused
What the nights’ fate has rejected to seek in marriage

21. As if the Najdi towns the enemy attacked
So its fortifications rebuffed him

22. Nay, by my father, those covenants will be kept
To hopeful suitors by their seekers

23. Clouds will pour without ceasing
Stars will rise without terrifying by their setting

24. Guiding stars of divine guidance undefiled by horizons
And pleasure gardens of pearls unsoiled by dust

25. What covenants do not give generously
And what fortunes do not attain all aims?

26. For it a way lies open to the pleased King
For it dangers become easy to brave

27. As if the text of the staff were the horizons of stars
Revealed while the clouds of spheres concealed them

28. When its light guided sight’s intention
The raised clouds of dust cleared from around it

29. When it rose, it startled hearts with its rise
When it set, souls were disturbed by its setting

30. It traveled, its wings outpacing the flying Jinn
Extending its wings over the horizon

31. Until the redness of dawn appeared like a bud
Coyly letting its veil drop from it

32. It borrowed from the dark night leaves
Pleasing to pick from the verdant palm

33. The sword of dawn works beneath it
But declines to restore its youth

34. The sun of morning rose as if
The soil, its clouds, Muhammad son of Nasr

35. A leader of clemency, knowledge, and attainment
Say to the heedless generous: where are they heading?

36. When it prays, even lions do not equal its prayer
When it captures, even torrents do not match its capture

37. Is it anything but mercy encompassing the land
With oceans of generosity overflowing their shores?

38. Is it anything but a Josephine state
The secret of sublime truth and its core?

39. Is it anything but a Nasrid sign
Whose star rose on the horizon of majesty?

40. Is it anything but Khazrajite resolve
Reaching for the highest heavens with its hills?

41. What excellent qualities then in the sons of Nasr
Grown for Khazraj's bowed form on earth

42. Faces of generous nobility from them
Islam’s lights made radiant their countenances!

43. Stars and from the light of faces their rays
Clouds and from clouds of palms their pouring

44. Full moons in the spheres’ horizons rising
Lions in thickets of brandished spears hiding

45. The swords protecting religion, their blades bared
Humbling the tyrants of religion, their necks bowed

46. Unique in his glory, I think his generosity
If reckoned, would multiply aims

47. With a palm the hopeful find sweet to grasp
But the aggressive find harsh to confront

48. Capacious is the land of pardon save for aggression
For them, even vast lands became confining

49. By it the disobedient yielded and their arrogance subsided
And failed its loyalists, their fortresses collapsed

50. Many a banner whose knot held victory firm
And if it loosened, bared their shame

51. Sabtah when the idolater who wrongly
Seized it from the hand of monotheism

52. Summoned you from it to help the religion—tribes
Who consider lightly what befalls them for your sake

53. Nothing alarmed them but its coming to you
And the parties of misguidance taking and giving

54. It set up ranks around it, summoning you as ally
To be feared where reward is hoped for

55. Had their food not hoped for you
Their drink not invited you

56. Whenever it summoned other than you one day
That failed while the thirsty were deluded by mirage

57. How many groups beneath it branched out
To live, though souls were given life by its branching

58. It emptied its dwellings of inhabitants
And no way remained for unbelief to take root

59. It is as if your resolved intent has sealed its breach
And victory’s door opened for it

60. It is as if the unbelievers are a band
Whose rods are split or staffs dismantled

61. It is as if among those it sheltered
Their claim failed and lies shown

62. You singled out the one who brought it
To a journey with no hoped-for return

63. What does he wish from the sublime companions
When the clothes have been stripped from his shoulders?

64. Breach like breaches showed itself
And the roses of death grew more sweet

65. By God where sheep graze fearlessly
Breach by breach not pleasing the wolf

66. Why are the wolves not repelled now by your sword
From the thicket of lions their dens?

67. If the people of unbelief intend evil and plot
Ruses to diminish mischief among them

68. It will save it from them despite them and their people
For it the claws of death have dug in

69. What king is hoped for besides you for its victory
And what but your supremacy do its seekers desire?

70. Muster then the armies of victory anticipating battle
With the flames of war raging

71. When roused for war its lions roar
Not content without bloodying the wolves

72. Its edges will make victory’s symbol eloquent
And express attainment of hopes by steadfastness

73. The fuel of war will be kindled by it
To the point the delegation of Arabs marches forth

74. Indian swords telling of streams
With only the wolves left bloodied

75. To the point the Nile flows with corpses
Spiking Christians upon its crosses

76. To the point lofty places and upper rooms
Are stars twinkling within its dark clouded interior

77. Its sharp blades bared against the stars
Whenever its gloomy night obscures

78. Piercing the enemy with the cup of death
Their morn reviving and their evening soothing

79. Bestowing with conquest abundant spoils upon Muslims
The scope of what the sublime goals demand

80. Were it not for days of anguish to come
There would be nothing for the arrogant to hunt for prey

81. Yes in God’s way what the soul met with
In its anguish has mighty reward

82. By God in dire straits holding fast to it
And in God its patience and forbearance willingly

83. How many eyes from us shed tears
Melting hearts with their dissolving!

84. We raise palms pleading
How many invocations are not turned away!

85. Until divine grace showed in your essence
Which life and youth sacrificed themselves for

86. Days would have persisted in what they brought
But here it stands accepted by you in penance

87. Why not when in auspicious health it came
Annulling what causes doubt and avoidance?

88. By God what herald of union arrived
A star shone on the throne of Saud!

89. Its intimations tell of what comes after
With hope of downpour after droplets’ sprinkling

90. Had the stars taken their forms from it
Daylight would not be absent from its streaming

91. The lofty Ulya in their crowns
Would not have covered them before wearing

92. You gave it glad tidings clarified in expression
Solidifying the knot of glorious rule

93. And bringing at the time of Saud’s authority
Its book and scripture sent down

94. The guardianship of a prince succession secures
And victory’s expanse opens for it

95. You summoned the land’s people so they obeyed
Delegations vying for it with their mounts

96. For a kingly court with sweet flowing dew
Its canopy hoisted for all comers

97. Nations came to it including tribes
Crowding its banners and sweeping hills

98. You chose for Islam the best prospect
For its pledge seekers competing to meet it

99. By God how sublime your caliphate
Raised by the Most High chosen and picked!

100. And Marib implored you for its victory
With the stout spears dripping from its battle

101. The advent of the Nasrid state its purpose
And the Hijazi praiseworthy trait its custom

102. As if the One served it with alliances
And its dark clouds and obscurities disappeared

103. As if it poured in the pool of your palm and drew
At the horizons weighing down with clouds pulling

104. Before the rightly guided imam well composed
Surpassing the accomplishments of singers

105. Weaving at the end harmonious rhyme
Guiding the odes of eulogy led astray

106. You remained bestowing from your palms clouds of gifts
Their pouring bringing bounty to the hopeful

107. How many pure prayers for your eminence!
No disappointed turns away its answerer

108. I come with excuses my making,
Its marvels cannot be hidden

109. You established for the religion a most honorable way
Praised by the chaste deeds’ tiaras

110. And you granted for ample charity garments
Whose trailing we find sweet on shoulders

111. You sent among it steeds advancing in multitude
Calming hearts perturbed and unsettled

112. They stride unless their reins are held back
As if Phoenicians traversing arid plains

113. Harbingers of stars that told of dawns
In starry horizons awaiting their rise

114. War will reveal them guiding stars
When the raised clouds of dust concealed them

115. Climbing the atmosphere they fling their tails
Their trailing over horizons withdraws

116. Yearning saplings swoon for them and lean
Branches the origin shows how they were pulled

117. When they are fixed eyes are fixed on them
Or return disturbed souls are overturned

118. As if birds hovering in dusty haze
Settling in nests to lay and breed

119. Remaining if safe, still unsettled
While at other times ducking in alarm

120. If the lost are guided by their course
No straying can go uncorrected

121. When the bow of heaven notched its arrow
No target avoids the striking of its notch

122. By God—two cubs of a lion advanced
To a matter from which even lions refrain!

123. Hold your peace, but for a prophetic way
Whose reward is reaped by the patient

124. And merit surpassing people from them
Hoped for by the apologizer, feared by the blamer

125. Otherwise from the docile camels their flank
And the tall smooth palms would shake

126. By the light of a candle is illumination
And from lack of grazing writing flows

127. Can good coffee be diminished?
Can any musk lose its scent?

128. And does the honorary approaching help
In times of war but their blades’ whetting?

129. So were it not for the burnishing of their Indian steel
And the sharpening of their Yemeni sabres

130. You congratulated them with glad tidings
The good omen of consultation came openly

131. And the pledge of glorious might firmly knotted
Came at Saud’s time, its script written

132. The wardship of an heir victory accompanies
And cedes ground for esteemed triumph

133. You invited the countries’ peoples so they lent support
Riders striving with their mounts

134. For a royal court sweet flowing drink
Its canopy erected for all callers

135. Nations and tribes came to it
Filling its banners and sweeping foothills