وإَذا أَرَدْتَ تَرى فَضيلَةَ صَاحِبٍ

فَانْظُرْ بِعَيْنِ البَحْثِ مَنْ نُدْمانُهُ

When you want to see the virtue of a friend

Look with the eye of insight at who is close to him

فَالمَرْءُ مَطْويٌّ عَلى عِلاَّتِهِ

طَيَّ الكِتابِ وصَحْبُهُ عُنْوَانُهُ

For a person is folded over his own nature

Like the folds of a book, and his friends are its title