Soon after this, Aykē-Timūr having come near me, called out, “may the victory be propitious;” I took the word _Victory_ as an omen, and gave him charge of the white standard, with orders to go and commence hostilities: on seeing the white standard, he was much affected, and set out to comply with my commands. Another of the omens which afforded me much pleasure was this, when Tugleck Timūr Khān, the descendant of Jengyz Khān, the first time he invaded Maveralnaher, and had crossed the Sihūn (Jaxartes), summoned all the chiefs to meet him. Hajy Berlas was afraid, and preferred emigration to remaining, therefore set out for Khorasān. I was also divided in my opinion what I should do, I therefore wrote to my Counsellor (Peer) for his advice, whether I should go and meet Tugleck Timūr, or, having collected all my horde and tribe, proceed to Khorasān. He wrote me this answer: “It was asked of the fourth Khalif Aly, ‘if the heavens were bows, and the earths the strings of those bows, and calamities were the arrows, and mankind the butt of those arrows, and the archer should be God, to whom ought mankind to flee for succour, the Khalif replied, that they should flee to God.’ It is therefore your business to advance towards Tugleck Timūr, to embrace him, and to pluck the bow and arrow from his arms. Farewell.”[18] From this letter I received much consolation, and I went and met Tugleck Timūr on the banks of the Khojend river; he was much rejoiced at my coming; he made me one of his counsellors, employed me and consulted me on all occasions, until he received intelligence that his chiefs had raised the standard of rebellion in the Desht Kipchāk,[19] on this subject he consulted me, whether he should go himself to quell them, or should send another army to do so; I said to him, “in your going there is only one danger, but in sending, there are two, the wise man is he who chooses the lesser danger;” hereon he praised me exceedingly: again he consulted me respecting the government of Maveralnaher, I said to him, “your government resembles a tent, let the poles thereof be made of the wood of equity, and let the rope pins be firmly fixed in the ground of justice, so that every person, who enters the tent, may pass out in safety.” “Act kindly to the Syeds, the learned, and the prelates of that country, and preserve the people under the shadow of your justice, do good to the good, and use policy with the bad, so that you may restrain the soldiers in the bonds of kindness.” But he disgusted his chiefs by confiscating the property they had collected from the people of Maveralnaher, and compelling them to pay it into his treasury; he consulted me again on this occasion, I told him “that the minds of the Tūrks were narrow like their eyes, that it was requisite to satiate them in order to gain their attachment, and to tie up their tongues.”