It was narrated that one day al-Mutawakkil was drunken in his palace called al-Barkwar. He said to his drinking companions where it was not the season of flowers, ‘What do you think if we hold a festival of flowers?’ They said to him, ‘These days are not of flowers.’ He sent for Ubaydillah bin Yahya, who was one of his viziers, and asked him to coin five million dirhams each of two weights of silver. When the dirhams were coined, he ordered his vizier to dye some of the dirhams red, some yellow, some black, and to leave some as they were. The vizier did as he was ordered. Then al-Mutawakkil ordered his seven hundred servants and retinue to prepare a new garment and cap different in color from each other and they did. Al-Mutawakkil waited until a windy day came and he ordered a large tent of forty doors to be erected. He came into the tent surrounded by his drinking companions and his servants wearing their new dresses. He ordered the dirhams to be scattered a group after another like flowers. They were scattered successively and the wind carried them for they were light. They flew in the air like flowers did. ( Ad-Diyarat, p.160.)
Israaf – Mutawakkil 2
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