- 36 -The lineage of Sheikh Dafa Allah is from these two men: Ismail bin Sheikh Makki Al-Daghlashi - and his mother was a Sagrawiyya named Khayra, whom he gifted to Sheikh Makki, Sultan of Taqali. She became pregnant by him with his son Al-Nur. Al-Daghlasha said, "A sheikh has come." He asked them, "How many brothers have come as gifts?" Then she became pregnant and gave birth to Ismail. Sheikh said, "O Daghlasha, how many sheikhs have come to you?" Sheikh Makki was taken by divine attraction in the love of God and His Messenger, and he went out wandering, taking his son Al-Nur and Ismail in the cradle before he could speak. They entered the wilderness, and no news of him has been heard since. The Arabs found Al-Nur in the wilderness west of Al-Haraza. They brought him back. Sheikh Ismail spoke in the cradle and said, "Al-Nur will come, but my father will not come." He memorized the Book from Al-Faqih Muhammad, son of Manufli, the Khalifa of Sheikh Makki, and learned jurisprudence and Tawhid from Sheikh Mukhtar, the commentator of Al-Akhdari. He began teaching Al-Risala, Tawhid, and the Quran. He has poems and odes in praise of the Prophet, peace be upon him, and words in which he clarified the attributes of the Awliya (saints). He is famous among the Awliya and wrote a book on the Tariqa (Sufi path) and the etiquettes of Dhikr (remembrance of God). He also has a commentary on his ode in praise of the Prophet, peace be upon him, which is his saying: "I saw in my night, in my dream, the best of creation, laughing and beaming..." He also has words in which he expresses his love for women, such as Shahja and Ayyiba, like Layla and Su'da in the words of the ancients. His student, Al-Faqih Abu Al-Nur Al-Rayashi, informed me, saying: "The first thing that happens when the state comes upon him, he walks in his courtyard, and the virgin girls and grooms attend. He watches the dancing and plays the rababa, and each stroke has a melody that awakens the madman and takes away the minds. The animals and inanimate objects are enchanted by it, to the point that when the rababa is placed in the sun, as soon as it hears its sound, it plays in its rhythm without anyone touching it. His mare, a daughter of Bakr, is adorned and dressed in silk and bells. And her riders, as soon as they hear his words in his war chant, which is: 'Daughter of Bakr, Al-Marda, and O Sultiyya Al-'Aradi, O!' the mare stands up and sits down, bowing her head and forelegs. The crowd shouts, 'Shalaw, Shalaw!' A woman came to him while he was in that state and said to him, 'O Baba Sheikh, my son is not being brought to me. They took him away.' He said to her, 'You don't see your son in this commotion?' She went looking and found her son there. The people asked him, and he said, 'I was at this hour eating with the children of fish, in the flesh of a whale, on a boat. A pomegranate juice seller came and threw me here.' As for the women he praises in his songs, they have awe and majesty. He was a Kartaweya, and he would sing and say: May God be pleased with him. "The free man of the Fung went out seeking the beloved, a shirt for the rider, a cloak for the one who carries."