1. You are peerless in time
Blessings and peace be upon you

2. If Abraham was a gallant lad afore
You are the lad, and Abraham

3. You have a good way with people, which is
A straight path from their Lord

4. The Pharaohs of Syria submitted to you in fear
Was Moses the Converser amongst them?

5. Every region your writ runs for ages
Lives by your command, however distant

6. You are the jurist if you lay down the law
The sage if you arbitrate

7. Your drinking companions were shamed by Shurbush
By God, this was no trivial thing

8. None will be satisfied save by your ruling in any case
Brought before you by the disputants

9. If you were to assume authority
No oppressor or oppressed would remain in the world

10. Mankind is content with you through the ages, and the Sultan
And God, the One, the Eternal

11. You acquitted well whatever you took on
Not overreaching, nor easily wearied

12. When you are pleased, you are a gentle breeze
When angered, a noxious gale

13. You are divine content and bliss when pleased
And Malik and hellfire when incensed

14. You are easy going towards the right
And harsh towards falsehood, which flees you

15. May God increase the heights you have attained
And may you never know humiliation

16. Only praise in good deeds is owed you
While for you passion is ever a bondmaid

17. No gazelle ever made you vain with her beauty
Nor does the wild cow tempt you

18. No daughter of nobility provokes you
With charms that leave men distraught

19. Coffee in goblets exudes a draught
That ravishes all who partake

20. Dispelling cares for one beset with concerns
That dazzle the sight, however lofty

21. You have firm resolution and your supporter resolve
And piety and Scripture are your boon friends

22. While each morn gifts you from your sons
Are a choice harvest and fruits preserved

23. You thrill to the neighing as do the studs
And camels when groomed for their mares

24. The day the lynxes are white and the ostriches black
Is when night’s darkness sports stars

25. Your sword parts skulls of foes
As it thrusts and they flee before you scattered

26. One said, on seeing you not to oppress myself
And turned away as turns the shirker

27. You have youths who have never ceased to be
For you, chieftain of youths, devoted servants

28. Thanking you in prose is scattering pearls
Praising you in verse is stringing them

29. As long as you live he feels empowered
None of your family has cause for complaint

30. His lot sleeps, O holy warrior
While you stand by, knowing and wise

31. He hopes for the Giving of God, who disappoints not
The hopes of the generous

32. You are, in truth, the king sent us by
A Lord most beneficent

33. You astonished the Arabs, non-Arabs, Franks, Turks - all
And the Greeks too

34. You gathered up virtues for the heir apparent
Gladdening the poor and destitute

35. Now made prosperous through you, Abu Ishaq
The dispossessed and the deprived

36. His eagle circles the horizon invoking
For you the Lord of Heaven brooding

37. Exalting and extolling the days
Of the just king’s rule

38. A king whose rule with a minister like you
Is something sublime in this age

39. For this every minister bows
As do grave affairs among kings

40. With you the Abode of Islam is garrisoned
In our time, and the sanctuary inviolate

41. And Mubāriz ad-Dīnʾs sword protects it
Rusted by neither wounds nor sharp blades

42. Baghdad, Egypt, Zamzam and the Ancient House
Crave the example he sets

43. Offered in his counsel, and indeed
The like of him deserves such a gift

44. May God eternize the just king’s rule
While the heavens are adorned with stars