1. The sun is veiled from it each night, its eyelids
Cross the horizon, its secret is confined by its concealment.

2. If its radiance could reach out to it,
It would come at dawn to its shining.

3. And its pillars hide its platforms,
Neither humbled nor obedient.

4. The palace of a king, if a horseman saw it,
Would be startled and fall to its loftiness, its palace.

5. And it would see as great what Sābūr
Did not immortalize with his feet or the Sāsānians.

6. The temples of its eras prostrated to the fires, and if
It saw Him, their fires would prostrate to Him.

7. Rather, if its wise minds disputed with it about God,
Its proof of His beauty would stand.

8. Do you not see the world and the collector of all its beauty
As small next to it, while it magnifies its affair?

9. Were it not for the one it was infatuated with, it would shed tears
As a bereaved woman, its ribs pouring with sighs.

10. The smile of its crescent rising in its waters
As if it were a wispy beardlet.

11. The dew descends and rains form during its passage,
The pride of clouds pouring down their drops.

12. And it seems as though Quds and Yathrib were a cloak
Whose standards the Prophet spread until they settled into place.

13. The white palaces in its surroundings appear
As images surrendering their sight to it.

14. And the white dome is like a bird in it
Diving with the piercing wind in its nostrils.

15. Struck by arcades fluttering over it
So it descended with the fluttering of their bases.

16. Lofty, fulfilling its loftiness,
Where it surrendered, bent, its humanity.

17. Its bricks and granite and marble façade
Are like its firmly standing mountains.

18. It is adorned with garlands of pearls,
So its pearls smile with coral.

19. And the curtains of its friezes are as though
They are sections of adorned panels, their beauty seducing.

20. And it is as though the gardens were scattered in
Its spaces, their colors intricately arranged.

21. Turn your eyelids, line them with sights
That covered its smooth marble with fog.

22. You will see the arts of sorcery embodied, though
The ignorant know not if they are real or imaginary.

23. Projecting themselves from the chambers of houris
Arranged, their crowns detailed.

24. Facing each other in their degrees, they brought
War upon the beautiful ivory, beauty against beauty.

25. So shed your chastity among them, let the
Secrets of hearts be revealed.

26. They captivated sick hearts with their beauty
Watering, flooding them.

27. Distracting lovers from their beloved, stealing
The fruits of souls, though forbidden its fruits.

28. They surpassed the poets in what poetry composed for them
The pride of rhymes in its stringing and capping.

29. They came dragging the trains of poems
Its rhetoric enough to dazzle eloquence.

30. Exhausting the adept while the glancing of an eye
Doomed him in his ignorance.

31. Abrahamic blackness attributed
To the offspring of nobles, their gardens and dwellings.

32. As if it were Saif ibn Dhi Yazan in it
And as if it were Sanaa or its sheath.

33. Ardhan’s musk was poured over it, so it reeked
With your intermingled scent, the perfume of Ardhan.

34. As if it wore his youth, and the dew
Dripped down, moistening its meadows.

35. As though paradise were its dwelling
And its intercessor were God’s good pleasure.

36. It showed your brilliant mirror majesty,
Exalted by some favor, though it abased its place.

37. Its sides hunched over, if not for the weight of your glory
That settled in its position.

38. How excellent is the amusement of its shadow,
The repose of its fragrance, or its company!

39. Its date palms are blond, contending with darkness,
Traveling like stars twinkling at night.

40. It came, outlasting eras which
Rolled over their mounds when their bodies decayed.

41. It came in days of chaos for a period
Young, while time's bitterness grew old.

42. Yemenite in its lords, Najranite in its
Lineages, where Najran attributed it to them.

43. Or Sasanian, belonging to a Kisra or an Armah,
A Shamitah claimed in its name by a dihqan.

44. Or a Qarqaf, which the Romans prospered,
Whose achievements were not slighted or belittled.

45. The Catholicus acquired it, treasured it,
And protected the jewel of a diver, guarding it.

46. Among a group of his people, the turns of fate
Tested them, so its newness overwhelmed them.

47. It honored crumbling earth and centered
The land of the Berbers, its banners raised.

48. They did not kindle a fire whose flames
Shone at the horizons’ edges.

49. As though its temple preceded as a banner
And the army’s ranks were its minarets.

50. Their newborns circumambulated it, as
The dromedaries of pilgrims circled their homes.

51. It was given some of their knowledge, so it seemed
The monks of those books or their priests.

52. It surpassed them, pardoning in its glory,
While they crouched, ceding its grounds.

53. So it is like a Najud camel circling its cups
Or a dune contending with its spear.

54. Of virgins, no beloved attained
Union without its separation tormenting him.

55. It knew not the bitterness of farewells, nor moaned
In the bends of passion, sighing grief.

56. It came to you blushing in the blood of modesty, then
Complained of captivity to its sea, as though

57. Its two irrigated plains were its captive, captive to them.
It blamed you for some wrong, though it was a fawn

58. Whose wrongdoing was not feared, nor transgression.
So it came to you between shirts and skirts

59. Whose sewing drew praise for its tailor.
And if it gained your heart with what it adorned and enabled,

60. Striking the black of your heart as it willed.
It knew not what made the king most resolute to resist it,

61. With the precision of its shot, or its reckoning.
In movements like the winds of youth on the path of temptation,

62. Its acts, though it was still on the path of prohibition.
And if the prime of youth is met with amusements,

63. Then its prime is its season.
And if a soul stubborn to your humbling and softening

64. Like the ridge of two sand dunes between gardens.
Before the white of cheeks made you forget

65. The white that shatters amidst clamor, their eyelids.
And a horde that rouses swords against it when

66. Its audacity desired, frightening even the brave.
And a dynasty whose reign abandoned protecting

67. Its kingdom, as though its swords were its home.
A people whose days are its determination

68. And its whip, its striking, and its spears.
And if the steeds merrily race,

69. Then its heroes are its horsemen.
And if they challenge a city, their roar

70. Shakes it, their might makes it quake.
On their faces, the moons of battle appear

71. As their armor, their shooting stars adorning them.
They reach the heat of its hell if its heroes

72. Rally, and its equals come together.
An obstinate horde, the mountains are humble before them,

73. Their sharpness undimmed, their blades unbroken.
It returned you, and you are the Arab to whom

74. It is attributed, and Ja‘far is its descendant.
So boast of the crowns of kings and its kingdom,

75. For you are none other than its protector.
By God, you are about to hastily

76. Reach the legacy a hand stretches over the Euphrates’ daughters.
One aged redeems you from hopes, who never rested

77. On the beds of Suddad or Sinan.
Five wishes pour from it in torrents

78. Filling the ponds, its thirsty camels gathered.
From every bare-headed rock, every string of poetry

79. Which surpassed in the best of transactions, their prices.
Drawing near the question is a clerk from Sa‘da

80. Entangled in the beards, his teeth bared.
Aspiration raised you above them, which neither

81. The pair of stars nor a single one aimed for.
You brought the horizons’ lands into your grasp,

82. Cast behind the two easts, their mountains surrounded.
And those horizons of the kingdom are not

83. Feared in their fears, while you are their safety.
Girded with the sword of the Caliphate, which

84. Is surrendered to you if its reins slacken.
The steeds are driven into battle as though

85. Sari‘ and Wārida were its swift ones.
And the standards of the soldiers are shaken, correspondently

86. Beneath the clouds, their eagles soaring.
Until, with you astride, the enemy’s land

87. Was disturbed and its plains constricted.
It surrendered its reins to you, and before it

88. Neither its removal nor deposition ceased.
Do not say that the religion and world are his

89. Substitutes, the claim of a terrible liar.
The destination of requests and delegations when

90. The loss of eyes afflicted its riders, mounted.
The dew grew accustomed to descending on it, as though

91. It were the resting place of a mount or its kneading.
Forgiving of deadly sins, welcoming

92. And well-mannered, its forgiveness exalted.
If speech leans to generosity, excel

93. In kindness, the tilt of its bend generosity.
Though I fall short in thanking it, it has not

94. Deprived me before it of thanklessness.
I was like al-Walid, but the sons of

95. Khaqan did not rival it in honor or state.
Favors like first rainclouds, guarantors

96. Of success, depending on it assurance.
Oh my woe from me upon me if I am silenced

97. From its benevolence or drowned in its flood!
I have toward it nothing but my heart aflame

98. Drawing its affection to you, burning.
May its greatness last for us, shaded

99. By its shadows, its branches overhanging.
And may it submit to the folly of youth and the injustice

100. Of fortune, mighty, its authority supported!