1. I know not for which conquest I should congratulate you
O you who has brought Islam victory after victory

2. Each conquest says "I am more deserving of praise"
Yet the most recent is the most deserving of all

3. Should I congratulate you on taking Damascus
Or on taking Yemen into your dominion?

4. You have taken the gardens palace after palace
As you captured fortresses in Damascus one by one

5. Indeed the religion of Islam has blessed all people
And you are the one who has blessed this religion

6. You revived it when it was dead
Then you freed it when it was captive

7. Thanks be to God for what you have done in the Levant
And what He has praised you for in the company of angels

8. You have praise above the heavens that is proclaimed
And a station above all tongues that is built

9. Gabriel's home became too small for Gabriel
So he came to you longing and humbled

10. You remove those living there while the Home's Lord
Is most deserving of dwelling in His home

11. People witnessed that they saw Gabriel
Repel enemies, regiment after regiment

12. How many blows you struck that went unseen
How many stabs that went unfelt

13. A king whose soldiers are God's angels
Came to you one by one and two by two

14. Victory was slow to come to Damascus
But when you rose, you did not hesitate

15. You were determined when you loved God's cause
And the lover is always determined

16. By my life, whoever attains a great conquest
And is determined, is truly determined

17. You arose in the dark of adversity like the moon
Rising gently in the dark of night

18. Never in battle did you stand but as Joseph
You were beautiful in courage

19. Victory followed you from your sheath as if
Anger rewrote its name and became a branch

20. The enemies came at you and God repelled
All the hopes they pinned on you and on us all

21. They carried themselves like mountains but
Your horses' onslaught made them like docile lambs

22. They assembled their tricks and came like pillars
So who could stand against a charging stallion?

23. You did not meet their armies, but met them
As lands and cities instead

24. All who don armor and crown as their garb
Claiming riches from the people, yet with conquest

25. You were the richest and most content
Their weapons failed them, neither spear bent

26. Nor lance broke
Their steeds disappointed, though they deserved

27. No disappointment, they were beyond rebuke
The enemy clamor fell mute when your boldness

28. Returned their valor into insanity
The bravest among them made spears into

29. A refuge or an escape, a coat of mail
Not out of weakness or inability did they flee

30. If they could not bear fleeing, wrath and time
You snared them in a snare of entrapment

31. That gathered lion and fawn alike
Their blood flowed in rivers above which

32. Our ships flowed like streams
A feast was made of them in which

33. Al-Musharrif danced and sang
Their worshipped one remains a prisoner with you

34. Disgraced, so make the fire his cage
They crucified their Lord but it did not avail them

35. Who after his crucifixion gained any advantage?
Loss seized every king who thought his kingdom

36. Would last, though only God's kingdom remains
The Great King among them is a captive

37. Whimpering in darkness, whimpering
He mistakes sleep for wakefulness, and imagines

38. A person to be a mountain, and sees the sun as smoke
How he longed for the meeting, until he saw you

39. And wished he had never wished at all
He supposed, while your certainty in God

40. Was truer, and his supposition utterly wrong
In mercy, his shackles and chains softened

41. Whenever he moaned and groaned
And the accursed Ibn Arnat became

42. Disgraced, though today he wished for good fortune
You did wake him, fulfilling a vow

43. You had made, so you were rewarded for your goodness
The brides of cities were unveiled as spoils

44. And fruits of wealth were plucked from them
Damascus is not alone in celebrating you

45. Every region and every place congratulates you
You have conquered the lands, east and west

46. And encompassed the horizons, plain and rugged
You are alone at the pinnacle

47. And peerless in highest place
Description has fallen short describing your heights

48. What can be said? What meaning conveyed?
We heard God say "Obey Him" - we heard

49. Our Lord and obeyed