The world with snow was silvered for a season,
But emerald came instead of the heaps of silver.
The rich pagoda of Cashmere at springtide
Surrendered to the garden all its pictures.
See how the lake’s whole surface by the March wind
Is raised, like sturgeon’s back, in scaly ridges!
~Abú Mansúr ‘Umára of Merv, flourished under the last king of the House of Sámán and the first of the House of Ghazna.
