"And indeed I charge you, O intelligent, singular reader in his culture and his secularity/worldliness ('almaniyyatihi), in the purity of his thinking and the excellence of his judgment, that you undertake a just, sound comparison between the speech of the Commander of the Faithful - majestic is his praise - in 'Nahj al-Balaghah' and between the speech of the Messenger in 'al-Sihah', whether from the path of the Shi'a or the Sunnah, so you may see which of them is stronger and more eloquent? Indeed you, and [there is] no doubt, will confess, choosing [and] convinced, that the speech of the Commander of the Faithful is more supreme, and more exalted, and more eloquent, and more articulate in meaning and structure (mabnan), and this is from what affirms that he is his Lord and his Creator."

"And [as] a beautiful conclusion to this good conclusion, I bring forth to the reader what follows:

[313] From the speech of our Master the Commander of the Faithful - Exalted is His Might - in 'Nahj al-Balaghah', and he is gesturing to the description of the Tatars:

'As if I see them, a people as if they are the hammered shields (al-majann al-mutarraqah), they wear the silk (al-saraq) and the brocade (al-dibaj), and they take in succession the noble horses (al-khayl al-'itaq), and there will be there an intensification of killing (istihrar qatl) until the wounded walks upon the killed, and the escapee will be fewer than the captured.'

So some of his companions said to him: 'You have indeed been given, O Commander of the Faithful, the knowledge of the unseen ('ilm al-ghayb)!' So he laughed, and he said to the man, and he was a Kalbi [from the tribe of Kalb]: