The mother of the Caliph, Muqtadar-bi-Allah, was very fond of jewels.
When Ibn Jassas was released from the gaol, he saw a hundred bales of
thick cloth being transported to the Caliph's palace. Ibn Jassas went to
the mother of Muqtadar and begged for the restitution of the bales.
These bales had come from Egypt and each bale had valuables worth a
thousand dinars. He got all of it on the spot and made considerable
profit from it.
Ibn Jassas kept a selection of pearls in a box. He used to send for it
whenever he felt depressed and to place the jewels in his lap so that the
heaviness of his mind might be dispelled. One day he was sitting by the
side of the fountain in his garden with the jewels in his lap when he was
arrested. In extreme agitation he threw all the jewels into the flower
bed. When he came out of the prison, he saw that the plants, flowers
and the grass in his garden had withered away. He lost all hope of tracing out the jewels. But when he cast a glance at the place where he had
flung the jewels, he found all of them intact; they had neither been
picked up by birds nor rats. He collected them all and his broken back
also improved.
His third quality was his foolishness. He was a most idiotic person.
Abu Bakr Suli has heard from 'Abd Allah bin Sulayman that the Caliph
Mu'tadid-bi-Allah used to say:
There are three wonders of the world. Two of them are non-existent
and exist in name only. One of them is the 'unqah bird of the west
and the other is kibrit-i-ahmar. But there is a third wonder which is
in existence and is stranger than both. This is Ibn Jassas, who despite
being the most foolish of men, is an expert on pearls.
It is one of the signs from God that, despite his foolishness, he did an
excellent liaison work between Mu'tadid and Khumarwayh, conveyed to
the former what he had been entrusted with, and appraised Mu'tadid
correctly.
It has been said about Ibn Jassas that someone called upon him to
offer his condolences upon the loss of his son and said: "Have patience;
do not be impatient; may God console thee." Whereupon ibn Jassas
said: "We are not accustomed to death."
Suli has written that, after the Caliph Mu'tasim had his palace built,
he held an assembly in which all the members of his family joined. He
put on the crown with the durr" Yatimah studded on it so as to impress
the spectators with the magnificance of his kingship. Ishaq Musili asked
permission to recite a panegyric. Given permission, he recited the following matla'.
0 thou abode of my love, hoariness of age has destroyed thee. How
1 wish I could know what hast made thee so old!
Mu'tasim took this to be an ill omen. The spectators also winked
