Ibn al-Farid or Ibn Farid; (, "`Umar ibn `Alī ibn al-Fārid") (22 March 11811234) was an Arab poet. His name is Arabic for "son of the obligator" (the one who divides the inheritance between the inheritors), as his father was well regarded for his work in the legal sphere. He was born in Cairo to parents from Hama in Syria, lived for some time in Mecca, and died in Cairo. His poetry is entirely Sufic and he was esteemed as the greatest mystic poet of the Arabs. Some of his poems are said to have been written in ecstasies.