Machine summary:
When I was comfortably seated there entered a blind man, who after saluting took a seat, and said : I have certain claims on the prince Saif al-daulah, among them those of a neigh• bour, dating from the time of his residence in· Mausil, so I have come to him, bringing a petition; perhaps you will be good enough to convey it to him.
The prince said: Let him enter, for, from what I know of his reluctance to ask favours, he can only have come, · I fancy, for some adequate reason.
The prince whispered something to him, and he (Abu Ishaq) took hold of the shaikh and began to address to him on behalf of Saif al-daulah a lengthy apology, saying : You have come to us at the very end of the year, when our funds have been divided between various claimants, visitors, and the army, and there are a number of chieftains standing at our gate, whom we have to satisfy.
-I said to the prince Saif al• daulah : My lord, do not bring down this largesse on this shaikh all at once, so shortly after the despair which has befallen him, lest his gall burst.
Do not bring this down on him so shortly after the despair lest his gall burst ?-·I said : Oh, an hour ago I was with Abu Muhammad al-Salihi and Abu'l-Qasim al-Maghribi, when there happened- (I told him the story), and this shaikh went away in disgrace; then he came personally, and was treated so nobly by your highness.