1. His arrival brought ease and good fortune, approaching
With promises, his face bringing joy to complete

2. The meadows of bliss have given us a blooming branch
And gifted us with its blossoms an armful to bear

3. The breeze of proximity blew, spreading what was folded
Increasing in its excuses and pretending illness

4. The speaker of the assembly rose to give glad tidings
And excelled in his prose, relaxed and flowing

5. Time for us had readied its arrows
But now repents what it had gathered and abandoned

6. Our time had readied its arrows
To honor us a house, lands, and homes

7. Its gazelles have flirted their eyes with us
Have you not seen how we have praised this flirting

8. Adorned in the meadow’s silk raiment
Its beauty’s splendor shines if detailed

9. Gleaming, sweet like the full moon’s dew
Bestowed upon us by the Judge of Judges graciously

10. A youth who won precedents of horsemanship - what a
Noble, generous steed among steeds, decked out

11. He is the brilliant, glorious, ingenious Al-Alma’i
Who can barely suffice to answer one’s imaginings

12. Clarifying the ambiguous with ease
And articulating the problematic clearly

13. I cannot enumerate all the traits of his meanings
Even if my praise came prolonged for him

14. When I aim to recite praise, beginning with In the Name of God
Then first composing verse for him

15. To him the discourse of generosity is attributed, for he
Relayed it, dictating from him uninterruptedly

16. Quick to help, true to his word, abundant in giving
I see every sea as but a stream to him

17. His jet-black pens over parchment - if they flowed
Generosity streamed from them, a spring and river

18. His hands have watered them, so they have borne fruit
And returned even more beautiful and perfect

19. From his palm the pearl of virtues is collected
And from his words the pearl of beauties gleams

20. Loving to be praised, he aspires for commendation
And rejects any blame upon him, embarrassed

21. To a beginner, he gives before being asked
Out of shyness, fearing you might say, so he is shy

22. He is rain, except he came pure when attained
He is an ocean, except its shore is sweet

23. Though it is cooler than the ocean’s expanse
And its attainment richer than rain’s torrents

24. So that you see the former crying and frowning
And the latter laughing and exultant

25. If you seek to praise him excessively
In the style of aggrandizement, you will find him even better

26. Tomorrow his sanctuary will be a refuge for pilgrims
What bliss for one who strives hastily toward it

27. At his door one attains what one hopes for
And reaches beyond what one aspired to before

28. I relied on praising him well for generosity
And one who relies on him is never let down

29. Loyal, even if my gratitude falls short for him
I hope my praise will prolong for his giving

30. O loftiest garden and straight path to its meadow
Key to the door of his knowledge that was locked

31. What shall I call you, O Ahmed of all creation?
Shall I say you are the sun or the sole supreme?

32. Take them from the prose I have strung as a pledge
For you are most worthy to undertake them

33. Your praises - lawful magic, their rhymes - kinfolk
To your uncommon meanings - family, related

34. The steeds of meaning bolted in its rhetorical beauty
Have you not seen in it how words hurried?

35. A beauty whose harmony’s water is exquisite
Its beauty so great it cannot be pictured

36. Sheikh al-Sheikhs authored it - if only he could see
He would be an addendum to its verses

37. If one day it contended with Ibn Nabata
He would say “This growth that has arrived”

38. It transcends Ibn Burd’s most excellent composition
And what he wove came finer and more spun

39. Without you the words could not be mastered
Nor pleasant in its entirety or details

40. Nor would its horizons shine beautifully
Nor its necklace of jewels be strung

41. With you time is unsullied, so stay eternally
And its humor improved, by our bliss, well-balanced

42. You continue rising, ascending, and towering
While my state has declined, diminishing low

43. And praises of you, their conclusion -
Musk and perfume suffuse the horizon’s breadth