By the former with ruin and death we are curst,
In the latter we grieve for the ills of the first;
And as for the whole, where together they meet,
It's a drunkard, a liar, a thief, and a cheat.
_Mohammed Ben Zeid Almotakalam_.
[22] Mohammed Ben Arfa, here called Naphta-Wah, was descended from a
noble family in Khorasan. He applied himself to study with
indefatigable perseverance, and was a very voluminous author in
several branches of literature, but he is chiefly distinguished as
a grammarian. He died in the year of the Hegira 323.