The King said: "Mention to us some of what you saw of him."
The sage said: "No astrologer has sat with him but that he cut him off and made the proof triumph over him. No one from the people of religions and all creeds debated him but that the proof was established for him."
The King said to us: "What do you two say regarding what this man mentioned?" My Master said to him: «...and above every possessor of knowledge is a Knower.»1 "But let the King test him to know the truth of what the sage said."
The King said to the sage: "Go to him and order him to perform a question of conscience (mas’alat ḍamīr)." The sage went to him. Then the King summoned two of his chamberlains and said to us: "Let each of you choose a thought (muḍmar)." We did so. He ordered the chamberlains to follow the sage and order the Chinese man to perform two questions for them—a question for each of them. They did so.
When they came to the Chinese man and asked him about the two questions, the Chinese man said to the sage: "Indeed, the King—may Allah prolong his life—is asking about two men in his company; he is specific to them and loves them. He has taken them above the ministers, the trustees, and the loved ones. He has found total solace in them, to the point that he cannot part from them, finds no patience away from them, and nothing comforts him in their absence.
These two men aim to reach a great matter and a momentous state, which the kings of the time fall short of attaining. If I said that they aim to ascend to the heaven and exit from the children of this world, I would be truthful in my speech. They shall part from the King after ten days; this must happen. These two men possess a high, sublime rank and a great, magnificent determination. Their determination has called them to reach a matter too vast for estimation or limitation."